CQC State of Care report - Alzheimer's Society comments

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC’s) annual assessment of the state of health and social care in England looks at the quality of care over the past year. This includes the period before the full impact of COVID-19 began to be felt and CQC’s routine inspections were suspended as a result of the pandemic. Amongst other findings, the report noted that: 

'The social care sector was fragile as a result of the lack of a long-term funding solution, and in need of investment and workforce planning. In March 2020, CQC’s Market Oversight report highlighted that, in the absence of mitigating action, any further shocks to the labour market would be expected to increase the existing level of market fragility, place more pressure on local authority finances and could increase unmet care needs. There have been short-term interventions since that point but the need for a longer-term funding plan has still not been addressed.'

Fiona Carragher, Director of Research and Influencing at Alzheimer's Society comments:

'It's good to see the CQC  recognising the urgency of fixing social care right now: coronavirus sent shockwaves through a social care system already teetering on the brink of collapse.

'People with dementia have been hardest hit by the virus and we've been hearing daily via our support line from families desperate to visit loved ones locked away in care homes, and unpaid carers exhausted from lack of help.'

'Many have told us how the people they love are fading away rapidly, we cannot leave the 850,000 people who live with dementia at the mercy of a system not 'fragile' but dreadfully shattered.

'The way ahead is clear: an immediate plan for a universal social care system, free at the point of use, that provides quality care for every person with dementia who needs it. Anything less than that is abandoning people with dementia to their fate.'