Social Care News

We need 'wake-up call' on social care pressures – Mario Kreft

CFW chair Mario Kreft has appeared on the BBC's Wales Report in a special edition on social care and told viewers that a 'wake-up call' is needed about the pressures on social care providers and the NHS.

Speaking on the programme, which aired on February 8, he said even in a “relatively mild winter we're seeing huge pressures" in Wales and across the UK. "This should be no surprise to anybody," he added. "The reality is that we are a million miles away from where we need to be, where we could've been, and we need a wake up call.”

Watch the programme here.

The Welsh Local Government Association has warned councils face a £92m social care 'black hole' in 2017-18 and experts say the cost of providing care could double to £2.3bn by 2030.

Councils in England are being allowed to raise the tax by 6% over two years to plug a care funding gap.

However speaking on the programme alongside CFW chair Mario Kreft, the Minister for Social Services and Public Health Rebecca Evans (pictured right) said increasing the tax was not "fair" and "not an approach we're taking" although it remains the responsibility of local authorities to set the council tax for their areas within the parameters set in Wales.

CFW's lead on dementia care was also in the media this month – listen to Steve Ford on Radio Wales' Eye On Wales alongside Older People's Commissioner Sarah Rochira here.