NHS leaders know only too well that health and social care services are closely interlinked

Responding to the Care Quality Commission’s State of Health and Care in England report Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation said:

“Healthcare leaders know only too well that health and social care services are closely interlinked so when one suffers so does the other.

“Social care plays a crucial role in enabling people’s independence and maintaining dignity, yet we are now at serious risk of a significant erosion of the sector.

“As this report shows social care staff, including nurses, are leaving in their droves which presents a real risk to the continuation of services and creates worrying instability in the care market.

“Additional short-term funding which addresses the immediate crisis is urgently needed for this most challenging of winters, but crucially this must also be coupled with system wide long-term investment across the sector to improve services, boost wages and help recruitment and retention of these important roles in our communities.

“It is very welcome to see strong recognition of an importance of dedicated funding – known as discharge to assess – which has helped to ensure that patients can be discharged from hospital and into the right care setting as soon they are medically fit to do so.  

"However, it is concerning that this is also at risk of coming to halt in six months’ time.  It is imperative that this continues beyond this financial year if we are to avoid a cliff edge and significant disruption come next April.”