RCN comment on Nuffield Report on social care

Published: 16 October 2012

“This report echoes much of what the RCN has been saying for some time. There is an urgent need for proper resourcing of social care and community provision. In particular, the Government needs to tackle the critical 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. 

“Our own research earlier this year found that three quarters of community nurses said that work pressures on their team have increased as a result of social care cuts, while just six percent of community nurses stated that they had the time to provide the quality of care they would like. This raises major concerns for the capacity of community services to deal with an increasing number of acutely ill patients.”