190k extra care home beds are needed by 2035
AN AGEING population means almost 190,000 new care home places will be needed in less than 20 years to cope with soaring demand, experts forecast today.
The number of people aged 65 or older needing residential care will rise by 85.7 per cent by 2035 – equal to 189,043 extra spaces.
Even by 2025, 71,215 extra care home places will be needed in England for 353,000 over-65s with complex care needs, found a study published in The Lancet.
The number of over-65s with significant health problems nearly doubled between 1991 and 2011 and is set to rise again.
Professor Carol Jagger, lead author from Newcastle University, said: “The past 20 years have seen continued gains in life expectancy but not all of these years have been healthy years.
Quality
“Though most of the extra years are spent with low dependency – help with activities such as washing, shopping or household tasks – older men and women are spending around one year more requiring 24-hour care. This finding, along with the increasing number of older adults with higher rates of illness and disability, is contributing to the current social care crisis.”
Researchers compared data from large-scale English studies conducted in 1991 and 2011.
Life expectancy rose from 77.9 to 82.6 years for men and from 81.5 to 85.6 years for women.
However, the number of years spent with “substantial” needs, either residential care or help at regular times each day, rose from 1.1 to 2.4 years for men and from 1.6 to three years for women.
Izzi Seccombe of the Local Government Association said the Government must bring forward its consultation on social care.
She said: “The £2billion announced in the Spring Budget was a step in the right direction but services still face an annual £2.3billion funding gap by 2020.”
A Department of Health spokesman said: “High-quality care isn’t just about care home beds... since 2010 there has been a growth in home care agencies of more than 2,900.”
Four in five unpaid carers feel lonely or isolated, a survey by charity Carers UK found.
BRITAIN’S ageing population means nearly 190,000 new care home places could be required within less than 20 years. This is a major concern to millions yet our politicians cannot resist using the difficulties facing the care system as nothing more than an opportunity to score points over their opponents.
This issue is too important for such games. What we need is for opposition parties to work constructively with the Government towards a proper plan that can secure the long-term future of the care system. There’s no time to waste.