3 min read
There is a rising tide of concern from many social care organisations across the country about the significant shortfall in the Government's funding for social care, given the growing pressures on these services.
The latest concern has come from four of the major national social-care organisations. They have written to the Chancellor saying that, unless the funding issue is urgently addressed, there will be "an increasing number of older people, disabled people and their carers without any, or without sufficient, support to meet their needs".
They also point out that an inadequate social-care provision will result in "an increasing pressure on the NHS with more people admitted to hospital and more delays to get people home safely".
This has already become a reality, with the NHS announcing that the number of "fit" patients stuck in hospital is at an all-time high, as there is not the necessary support in place to care for them when they leave.
The Government's Autumn Statement announced a number of initiatives to increase funding for social care. But now these initiatives have been carefully analysed, they have been found wanting and concerns are just as great.
Langdon, like most charities, is funded through a combination of local-authority and private donations, and this will continue to be the case. Although there is a funding shortfall for social care from central and local government, organisations cannot afford to wait for more money. We need to take action now so that we can continue to support vulnerable people.
One aspect of social-care services is that, unless managed carefully, they can create a dependency culture among the people who use them. This makes them more vulnerable, resulting in them requiring more support, and placing more pressure on services.
Social-care organisations need to turn this vicious circle into a virtuous circle, by ensuring that the services we provide create an "independency culture", where people are able to maintain maximum independence and control over their lives, appropriate to their circumstances.
There are two key benefits to creating an independency culture. First, it reduces the risk of people requiring more services, and the subsequent pressure on social care providers. And it helps people to lead more fulfilling lives. They are more in control and more able to achieve their ambitions through their own actions.
Langdon's mission is to empower independence for people with learning disabilities, so our services have been developed to create an independency culture among the people we support.
One of the key ways we do this is by supporting our members to secure work, because having a purpose and an income is central to every person's independence.
Over 60 per cent of the people we support are in some form of employment, against the national average of six per cent of people with learning disabilities. A number are off benefits entirely.
After attending Langdon College, Ted, who has autism, joined our community in north London a year ago. From being someone who required a lot of support and direction on how to manage his daily life, Ted now works two days a week for the charity All Aboard and also volunteers at a local shop.
Ted is better at managing his finances and social life, requiring less support from Langdon than he needed a year ago.
This is an example of building an independency culture for one person.
Of course, there will always be services that people will require because of their physical or mental circumstances. But, by delivering these services in a way that supports an independency culture, people are less likely to require additional services, meaning organisations can target their services where they are needed most.
Social care providers must provide services where people need assistance, and encourage them to be independent in the other areas of their lives.
Social care providers need to collaborate and share ideas and best practice about how we can embed an independency culture in the services we provide and in the people we support.
We also need to work with business and our community organisations to identify ways they can contribute to creating an independency culture through employment and recreational activities.
That way, the people we support will be better placed to deal successfully with the challenging times we face.
Alison Rosen is Chief Executive of Langdon.
