Care and Support Alliance tells Chancellor: “Don’t ignore social care”
Members of the Care and Support Alliance (CSA) campaigning outside UK parliament.
Ahead of the 2024 autumn budget, RNIB joined the Care and Support Alliance (CSA) in Westminster, to tell the Chancellor Rachel Reeves that social care must not be forgotten in upcoming financial decisions.
Government Ministers have recently described social care as a “broken system”, and the CSA estimates that at least 2.6 million people in England go without the care they need. This has serious consequences for those individuals, and often families and friends who are left to provide care. It also increases pressure on other public services, especially the wider health and care systems.
RNIB research shows blind and partially sighted people are not getting the social care support they need to thrive, holding people back from carrying out everyday tasks safely, achieving personal goals and ambitions, or living the life they’d choose.
RNIB’s #OutOfSight campaign calls for improved vision rehabilitation services. Vision rehabilitation is a social care service which equips people with sight loss with skills to stay independent: to get around, adapt at work, do the weekly shop and enjoy hobbies.
However, our research shows over a quarter of local authorities in England left blind and partially sighted people waiting for more than a year for a vision rehabilitation assessment and subsequent support.
The CSA’s call for action on social care
Social care in England has been forgotten for far too long. To develop a workable, sustainable long-term solution, the CSA’s letter to the Chancellor is calling on the UK Government to:
- Address the shortfall in social care spending and put in place a long-term funding commitment to meet future demand.
- Provide additional funding to enable local authorities to tackle social care assessment and carer’s assessment waiting lists, so that they can fulfil their statutory duties under the Care Act 2014.
- Address the core issues facing the social care workforce – including pay and conditions, career pathways and skills recognition – as a matter of priority.
Read the CSA letter to the Chancellor.
About the CSA
RNIB is pleased to be a member of the Care and Support Alliance (CSA), a coalition of over sixty leading charities in England, campaigning alongside the millions of older people, disabled people, and their unpaid carers who rely on adult social care.
Support RNIB’s Out of Sight campaign
Add your voice to RNIB’s call for improved vision rehabilitation services.
