New analysis of health and social care must spur improvement across both sectors
New evidence about the state of England’s adult health and social care services must be the driver for better quality support, says VODG, the national body representing leading not-for-profit disability support providers.
This is the VODG verdict on today’s report from national regulator Care Quality Commission (CQC), The state of health care and adult social care in England, which shows that most health and adult social care services in England are providing people with safe, high quality and compassionate care. However, it also serious raises concerns that the health and care system is ‘straining at the seams’, making future quality precarious.Commenting on the CQC publication, VODG chief executive, Dr Rhidian Hughes said:
“This report is vital, authoritative evidence about what kind of health and social care support is available across England. CQC’s analysis of the quality of support comes as such services face unprecedented challenges in a climate of austerity. Social care providers, in particular, are experiencing increasing demands for support, rising costs and recruitment and retention worries.”
He adds:
“According to today’s CQC report, most health and social care services are good, and this reflects a strong commitment to quality support from the workforce in both sectors. However, there is worrying evidence of poor practice and services that remain woefully inadequate. It is also deeply concerning to see a deterioration in services where providers have taken a backwards step in their quality rating. Commissioners who fund health and social care services and providers which deliver them must utilise the knowledge and information in today’s report to drive up quality, and to ensure that good practice is not only shared, but replicated.”
CQC’s assessment come a day after VODG published the hard-hitting True Costs, warning that successive governments’ failure to properly fund social care is leaving millions of people at risk of losing vital support. The VODG report warned that if social care support fails, there will be harmful implications for the people who use these services as well as on the NHS due to increased demand for emergency care.