NHSE’s defunding of older people’s programme ‘a source of national shame’

NHS England cut £390m (70 per cent) from its planned budget for improving community care for older people in the past two years, according to information obtained by HSJ.

NHSE originally announced back in 2019 that it would spend £647m between 2020 and 2024 on a big expansion of community-based services for older and frail people. This included faster access to rehab care on discharge, personalised care and support at home, and urgent crisis response.

Funding for the Ageing Well programme, under the NHS long-term plan, was set to be targeted by NHSE for local providers to hire staff and create infrastructure. Its LTP allocations were back-loaded, with £204m in 2022-23 and £343m in 2023-24.

But now, figures released to HSJ under the Freedom of Information Act show the final amounts allocated in those two years were just £77m and £79m respectively — a cut across the two years of £391m (72%).

Geriatrician Professor Martin Vernon, who developed the long-term plan proposals as NHSE national clinical director from 2016 to 2019, told HSJ they should “have assumed even greater priority” after covid; and would have put the NHS “in a much better place”.

But he said: “The fact that these plans were largely defunded and badly implemented must now be a source of national shame. The opportunities have been largely squandered and rather than world-leading on ageing health we are now in many ways trailing…

“This regrettable situation must be rescued urgently with renewed commitment, the right national leadership and laser-sharp focus, to avoid yet more people facing a truly dismal future as they get older.”

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Source: HSJ, 14 October 2024