Dementia Care

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about action to improve dementia care.

I share your concerns that, for too long, social care has lacked the priority, attention and funding it deserves.  The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services estimates that a decade of cuts to local government has resulted in £8 billion being lost from adult social care budgets. As a result, too many people have been left to cope without the support they need.

Despite the best efforts of care workers, NHS staff and unpaid carers - who have gone the extra mile to care for older and vulnerable people – the pandemic has exposed and exacerbated these underlying problems.

Councils now face billions of pounds in extra costs due to the pandemic, yet Ministers have repeatedly delayed setting out a plan to fix social care.

The Government first promised to publish its plans to reform social care over four years ago. Despite repeated promises, Ministers have still not brought forward any legislation, new funding, details, or timescales for reform. The recent Queen’s Speech, setting out the Government’s legislative agenda for the year ahead, was absent of any detailed plans for reform.

Leading charities have raised concerns about the lack of clear proposals. This Dementia Action Week (17 – 23 May 2021), the Alzheimer’s Society is urging the Government to avoid further delays and reform our social care sector to support personalised, high-quality dementia care.

I agree. Fixing our social care system and protecting people from high care costs are essential. Indeed, I believe tackling the crisis in social care should be treated as an economic priority - in the same way as fixing infrastructure such as roads and railways.

As part of a wider ambition to make Britain the best country in which to grow old, I support calls for a 10 year plan of investment and reform; a plan to empower care users and their families to live the life they choose by expanding the options between care at home and a care home; a plan to fully join up health and social care services; and a plan that sets out a new deal for frontline care workers to transform pay, training and working conditions and support unpaid carers.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this important issue.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP