Social care waiting times revealed for first time in a decade

Older people are routinely enduring hidden waits of several months to get essential care and support, according to new figures obtained from government. 

Waiting time figures for adult social care are not routinely published in England, but last summer the Department of Health and Social Care collected the information from councils for the first time in at least a decade.

They have been released to HSJ after a freedom of information appeal, and show average waits of up to 149 days (about five months) in Bath and North East Somerset, with 25 councils (30% of the 85 councils which supplied this information) reporting waits of two months or more. Some people will be waiting much longer than the averages reported.

Across the 85 councils which reported average waits, the average of those figures was around 50 days. But the figures released to HSJ show huge variation – with three councils reporting waits of less than 10 days – although this is partly due to recording differences. 

The lack of clear figures, and absence of national waiting time measures and standards for adult social care, in contrast to the many targets and published figures in the NHS, and has sparked calls for that to be changed.

Sir David Pearson, a former integrated care system chair and director of adult social care, who led the government’s Covid-19 care taskforce in the wake of the disaster in care homes in spring 2020, said: “One way of ensuring public confidence is a timely response to need.

“Being clearer about a small number of standards and measures would help to achieve this. Of course it has to be associated with the right funding and reform, including supporting the social care workforce”.

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Source: HSJ, 25 March 2024