Joint letter to Andrew Lansley on care funding reform

Today, Tuesday 6 March, The Care Support Alliance - a coalition of 60 organisations representing disabled, older people and their families - will hold a mass rally of parliament and for the first time there will be an interactive campaign on social networking site Twitter, running alongside. The following is a joint letter to Secretary of State, Andrew Lansley from an alliance of 45 care charities, care homes and housing providers.

Dear Secretary of State,

On Tuesday 6th March, hundreds of older and disabled people, their families and carers will travel to Westminster with the same message for Parliament: we must end the crisis in our social care system.

They will speak for the millions of individuals and families we represent who are in desperate need of care and either going without or receiving inadequate support.

Years of underfunding, combined with rising demand have resulted in a social care system that is in crisis: an unfair and confusing postcode lottery which is now facing additional cuts. This is a challenge which successive Governments have failed to overcome – but we cannot wait any longer.

The groundwork for action has been laid. Your Government acted quickly to set up the Dilnot Commission on funding social care which reported last year. Alongside the Law Commission recommendations about community care law, this report sets out a roadmap for a sustainable and clear social care system.

As you prepare to publish a White Paper on social care this Spring, older and disabled people and their families need the Government to deliver on both fronts: the funding and legal foundation of social care.

Social care law needs to give everyone confidence that they will have access to quality care, when they need it, wherever they live.

But a new framework without additional funding will not address the fundamental challenge: the shocking fact that at a time when more people need care, the numbers getting support from social care services are decreasing. Those who do get support are often shocked by the cost and the quality.

If the plans published later in the Spring do not answer the question of additional funding, they will fail.

As they meet you and other MPs on Tuesday, to ask you to seize this opportunity to act, older and disabled people and their families want to know that they are not going to be let down again. Without decisions on funding, all they will hear are empty promises.

We urge you to build on the foundation the Government has achieved so far, and deliver sustainable, funded reform for those families.

Signed

Rick Henderson Chief Executive, Action for Advocacy

Dr Roger Wicks Director of Research, Policy and Government Relations, Action on

Hearing Loss Patrick Vernon

Chief Executive, Afiya Trust Michelle Mitchell

Director General, Age UK Jeremy Hughes

Chief Executive, Alzheimer's Society Jane Ashcroft

Chief Executive, Anchor Heléna Herklots

Chief Executive, Carers UK Gillian Crosby

Chief Executive, Centre for Policy on Ageing Srabani Sen

Chief Executive, Contact a Family Anne Roberts

Chief Executive, Crossroads Care Liz Sayce OBE

Chief Executive, Disability Rights UK Martin Green

Chief Executive, The English Community Care Association Denise Murphy

Interim Chief Executive, Grandparents Plus Richard Leaman

Chief Executive, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association Rachael Byrne

Executive Director Care & Support, Home Group Cath Stanley

Chief Executive, Huntington's Disease Association Janet Morrison

Chief Executive, Independent Age Julia Unwin

Chief Executive, Joseph Rowntree Foundation Anthea Sully

Director, Learning Disability Coalition Clare Pelham

Chief Executive, Leonard Cheshire Disability Ciarán Devane

Chief Executive, Macmillan Cancer Support Imelda Redmond

Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Marie Curie Cancer Care Mark Golding

Chief Executive, Mencap Simon Gillespie

Chief Executive, MS Society Robert Meadowcroft

Chief Executive, Muscular Distrophy Campaign Mark Lever

Chief Executive, The National Autistic Society Des Kelly OBE

Executive Director, National Care Forum Eve Richardson

Chief Executive, The National Council for Palliative Care OI Mei Li

Director, National Family Carers Network Jeremy Taylor

Chief Executive, National Voices Jamie Hewitt

Government Affairs Manager, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society Steve Ford

Chief Executive, Parkinson's UK Liz Fenton

Chief Executive, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers Judy Downey

Chair, The Relatives & Residents Association for Quality of Life of Older People in Care Paul Jenkins

Chief Executive, Rethink Mental Illness Lesley-Anne Alexander

Chief Executive, RNIB Richard Hawkes

Chief Executive, Scope Gillian Morbey

OBE, Chief Executive, Sense Peter Beresford

Chair, Shaping Our Lives Jon Barrick

Chief Executive, The Stroke Association Sir Nick Partridge

Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust Lord Victor Adebowale

Chief Executive, Turning Point Su Sayer

Chief Executive, United Response Chris Simmonds

Chief Executive, Vitalise Jonathan Senker

Chief Executive, VoiceAbility

Permission to use letter from Rick Henderson, chief executive of Action for Advocacy