Fair care
A leading provider of residential care has called for an immediate response to the plight of the elderly in Britain’s care homes after a BBC Panorama special uncovered shocking levels of abuse.
Tony Banks, chairman of Scotland’s Balhousie Care Group, said the coalition government must act now to redress the funding deficit facing elderly care in Britain. ‘We need immediate action and not another commission reporting next year. Funding for elderly care is the biggest issue facing bankrupt Britain and politicians have to deal with it and not push it onto the back burner’.
The Panorama programme highlighted the demographic challenge facing the UK, citing figures showing that, within 20 years, 25 per cent of its population will be over 65, and three quarters of over 65s will require care.
Louise Morse, spokesperson for Pilgrim Homes, said, ‘Most people are unaware that the residential care funding crisis is the result of government policy to switch funding from residential care to “domiciliary care”, where people receive scheduled help from a carer in their own home. In 2003, local authorities were set switching targets to meet with bonus incentives’.
