Responding to the National Audit Office report 'Reforming adult social care in England’, Royal College of Nursing Director for England, Patricia Marquis, said:
“Yet another report shows our health and care system buckling under the pressures brought about by years of neglect. Now we’re seeing the government backtrack on previous pledges meaning more people forced to pay privately for longer.
“Just a day after we hear NHS patients are being let down by ever growing record waiting lists, we learn about the catastrophic failure to invest in a social care system we’ve been repeatedly told there was a plan of reform for.
“Unsustainable levels of unfilled care jobs leading to an over-reliance on overseas staff and variations in funding is now putting some of the most vulnerable people at risk. Older people and other vulnerable groups are being failed by a false economy of an underfunded social care system that is one of the reasons for the immense strain in the NHS.
"Government must grasp the nettle, deliver the promised reform of social care funding, raise standards, and recognise the value of the professionals working in it.”
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Notes to editors
National Audit Office report - Reforming Adult Social Care in England
