Critical time for social care

Transforming Your Care (TYC) and the forthcoming discussion paper from DHSSPS on adult social care and support, provide us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape care services and ensure that service users are positioned at the centre of service and policy development. While the implementation of TYC will focus on services, the DHSSPS review will be the vehicle for the policy and legislative change that we need for a fundamental review of social care.   It is of vital importance that we maximise this opportunity.

TYC proposes significant targets for the acute sector – a 30 per cent reduction on emergency department admissions and a 20 per cent reduction in attendances at emergency departments. Age NI believes that to achieve these targets, quality care and support must be available in the community. Social care is the lynchpin.
A major cultural shift in the delivery of social care is required.  Health and Social Care Trusts are tightening eligibility criteria; only critical and substantial needs are being prioritised in the system currently.  Reablement alone is not enough; it’s only one component of the preventative agenda for older people. Evidence demonstrates that when low-level services are put in place, savings are achieved and outcomes for individuals are improved, for example, reductions in admissions and attendances at emergency departments.

Home should be the hub of care; older people tell us that’s where they want to be.  Service and policy change must empower older people with choice and control over the services they receive. This shift will enable informed decision-making and although challenging, Age NI believes that it must be central to policy and service change. The forthcoming DHSSPS review will provide a framework to deliver the legislative and policy change that is needed to ensure that rights and entitlements are central to the provision of social care.

Together, we must take the opportunity to fundamentally review social care… today.

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