Responding to a report by the Nuffield Trust and Institute for Government on social care, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said:

“This report makes for sober reading of how adult social care and those who rely on it have been systematically failed. The fragmentation we see today is what happens when there is a total absence of political leadership to ensure the sector is well-funded and provides equitable access to care. Instead, vulnerable and older people, as well as their families, have been left to pay a huge financial price trying to navigate a system which doesn’t always put them first. This same lack of leadership, investment and planning has also created a workforce crisis, which saw a third of registered nurses leave in the last decade and never replaced.

“Baroness Casey is right that successive governments have been asleep at the wheel, but this renewed political focus on adult social care is reason for optimism. For any plan to pass the nursing test, it must deliver equitable access to care for all, with a properly funded workforce plan to ensure all services are safely staffed and able to deliver high-quality care.”

Ends

Notes to editors

Nuffield Trust - Governance in social care: Lessons for reform