ADASS responds to British Social Attitudes survey

Public satisfaction with social care hits new low.

New findings from the British Social Attitudes survey, published by the Nuffield Trust and The King’s Fund, show that public satisfaction with social care services has dropped to just 13 per cent, the lowest level ever recorded.

Anna Hemmings, Joint Chief Executive of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) said: “Nobody who works in social care will be surprised by the results of this survey. The story it tells is not of the amazing impact people who work in social care have every day with the people they support, but of decades of chronic underfunding by successive governments.

That’s led to fewer people being able to access the care they need, care workers spread too thinly and not able to offer the care they know is needed, too many unpaid carers left without support, and a system which only has the resources to step in you when you’ve reached crisis point rather than intervening early to prevent you going downhill in the first place.

Another care and support system is possible. ADASS published a plan on how to achieve it last year, called Time to Act. And that is the message to the government from this survey: stop putting off backing reform and long-term investment in social care to make sure it’s there for our families when they need it.”