Head of government-commissioned review says adult social care is held together by ‘sticking plasters and glue’
England’s “creaking” adult social care system is confusing and impenetrable to the people that rely on it and held together with “sticking plasters and glue”, the head of a government-commissioned review has said in a withering critique.
Louise Casey said the country faced a “moment of reckoning” over its failure to effectively and fairly meet the needs of Britain’s ageing population and rising numbers of people with chronic conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
In a frank and often passionate speech, Casey said society needed to face up to the major challenge of overhauling an underpowered system in which “some needs are barely met at all and others are met late and in piecemeal and random ways”.
Casey, who has been tasked with putting policy flesh on the government’s manifesto commitment to set up a national care service, said her review was examined through “the lens of the adult and their family who need social care”.
