Health and Social Care Select Committee: Supporting people with dementia and their carers (29 October 2021)

Summary

This is the report of an inquiry conducted by the Health and Social Care Select Committee in 2020/21 which considers how the social care system is supporting those living with dementia. In the report the Committee make the case that the UK government’s plans for the health and care levy provides insufficient funding for social care over the next three years.

Content

In the report the Health and Social Care Select Committee say that the current social care system is “unfair and confusing”. They state that those living with dementia remain unprotected from unlimited costs and that navigating the system is burdensome for those providing support.

Key recommendations to improve support for those living with dementia include:

• Urging the Government to accept the Committee’s recommendation from a previous report in 2020 that social care funding should be increased by an additional £7 billion per year by 2023–24 to cover demographic changes, uplift staff pay in line with the National Minimum Wage and to protect people who face catastrophic social care costs.

• Calling on Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement use its future social care White Paper to develop clear guidance on the care and support those living with dementia and their carers should expect to receive from diagnosis through to lifelong post-diagnostic support. This guidance must encourage integrated working across the health and social care system while also establishing clear responsibilities for Integrated Care Systems in coordinating care. Alongside this, there must be appropriate data collection along the whole dementia pathway to monitor activity and support improvement.

• Stating that the Government’s new dementia strategy must include cross-departmental initiatives to ensure people with dementia are able to remain connected to their community.

• Calling on the Government to ensure reforms enable unpaid carers to better support those living with dementia, the Government must provide unpaid carers with the opportunity to contribute to any plans for reform.