'Moment of reckoning' needed in social care, says Louise Casey

"This divide between what is care and what is health does not exist to the public. It is our divide. It is not about what is best for the patient or the person. Put simply, social care does not start and end with a social worker doing an assessment, or you ending up in a care home."

"A system which means some needs are barely met at all, and others are met late and in piecemeal and random ways. We all know, including councils and the NHS, that we exploit the weakness of the care workforce."

"The UK is facing a moment of reckoning in social care. There is a deep and fundamental divide between health and social care, with an imbalance in power between the NHS and council-run social care, which ends up serving the institutions not people."

Baroness Louise Casey, chairing the independent commission on adult social care, identifies critical failures in England's care system for older and disabled people. The system operates as disconnected fragments where some needs go unmet while others receive late, inconsistent responses. A major structural problem exists: the artificial divide between health and social care serves institutional interests rather than patient needs. The NHS pays workers significantly better than social care providers, creating financial barriers to integrated services. Casey calls for immediate government action including establishing a national adult safeguarding board, appointing a full-time dementia tsar, and creating fast-track support for motor neurone disease patients. She emphasizes that the public experiences care as unified, not divided by administrative boundaries.

Read at www.bbc.com