Joint letter to Andrew Lansley on reform of care funding

Dear Secretary of State, On Tuesday 6th March, hundreds of older and disabled people, their families and carers will travel to Westminster with the same message for Parliament: we must end the crisis in our social care system. They will speak for the millions of individuals and families we represent who are in desperate need of care and either going without or receiving inadequate support. Years of underfunding, combined with rising demand have resulted in a social care system that is in crisis: an unfair and confusing postcode lottery which is now facing additional cuts. This is a challenge which successive Governments have failed to overcome – but we cannot wait any longer. The groundwork for action has been laid. Your Government acted quickly to set up the Dilnot Commission on funding social care which reported last year. Alongside the Law Commission recommendations about community care law, this report sets out a roadmap for a sustainable and clear social care system. As you prepare to publish a White Paper on social care this Spring, older and disabled people and their families need the Government to deliver on both fronts: the funding and legal foundation of social care. Social care law needs to give everyone confidence that they will have access to quality care, when they need it, wherever they live. But a new framework without additional funding will not address the fundamental challenge: the shocking fact that at a time when more people need care, the numbers getting support from social care services are decreasing. Those who do get support are often shocked by the cost and the quality. If the plans published later in the Spring do not answer the question of additional funding, they will fail. As they meet you and other MPs on Tuesday, to ask you to seize this opportunity to act, older and disabled people and their families want to know that they are not going to be let down again. Without decisions on funding, all they will hear are empty promises. We urge you to build on the foundation the Government has achieved so far, and deliver sustainable, funded reform for those families. Signed Rick Henderson Chief Executive, Action for Advocacy Dr Roger Wicks Director of Research, Policy and Government Relations, Action on Hearing Loss Patrick Vernon Chief Executive, Afiya Trust Michelle Mitchell Director General, Age UK Jeremy Hughes Chief Executive, Alzheimer's Society Jane Ashcroft Chief Executive, Anchor Heléna Herklots Chief Executive, Carers UK Gillian Crosby Chief Executive, Centre for Policy on Ageing Srabani Sen Chief Executive, Contact a Family Anne Roberts Chief Executive, Crossroads Care Liz Sayce OBE Chief Executive, Disability Rights UK Martin Green Chief Executive, The English Community Care Association Denise Murphy Interim Chief Executive, Grandparents Plus Richard Leaman Chief Executive, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association Rachael Byrne Executive Director Care & Support, Home Group Cath Stanley Chief Executive, Huntington's Disease Association Janet Morrison Chief Executive, Independent Age Julia Unwin Chief Executive, Joseph Rowntree Foundation Anthea Sully Director, Learning Disability Coalition Clare Pelham Chief Executive, Leonard Cheshire Disability Ciarán Devane Chief Executive, Macmillan Cancer Support Imelda Redmond Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Marie Curie Cancer Care Mark Golding Chief Executive, Mencap Simon Gillespie Chief Executive, MS Society Robert Meadowcroft Chief Executive, Muscular Distrophy Campaign Mark Lever Chief Executive, The National Autistic Society Des Kelly OBE Executive Director, National Care Forum Eve Richardson Chief Executive, The National Council for Palliative Care OI Mei Li Director, National Family Carers Network Jeremy Taylor Chief Executive, National Voices Jamie Hewitt Government Affairs Manager, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society Steve Ford Chief Executive, Parkinson's UK Liz Fenton Chief Executive, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers Judy Downey Chair, The Relatives & Residents Association for Quality of Life of Older People in Care Paul Jenkins Chief Executive, Rethink Mental Illness Lesley-Anne Alexander Chief Executive, RNIB Richard Hawkes Chief Executive, Scope Gillian Morbey OBE, Chief Executive, Sense Peter Beresford Chair, Shaping Our Lives Jon Barrick Chief Executive, The Stroke Association Sir Nick Partridge Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust Lord Victor Adebowale Chief Executive, Turning Point Su Sayer Chief Executive, United Response Chris Simmonds Chief Executive, Vitalise Jonathan Senker Chief Executive, VoiceAbility