RCN: social care needs proper funding

Published: 16 October 2012

There is an urgent need for proper resourcing of social care and community provision, the Royal College of Nursing has said.

The comments were made in response to the publication of the Nuffield Trust’s report on social care.

RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary Dr Peter Carter said the report echoed much of what the RCN has been saying for some time and called on the Government to tackle the issue of funding.

“The current level of unmet social care need is deeply concerning, particularly when local authorities are increasingly restricting free support to only people with critical needs and the lowest means,” he said.

RCN research has found that three quarters of community nurses said that work pressures on their team have increased as a result of social care cuts.

“This raises major concerns for the capacity of community services to deal with an increasing number of acutely ill patients,” added Dr Carter.