MPs have launched an inquiry looking into the costs of failing to fix the struggling adult social care system.
The Health and Social Care Committee will examine the cost of inaction for local authorities when it comes to adult social care, as well as for individuals, the NHS and the Treasury.
In 2023 there were approximately 250,000 people waiting for a care assessment in England, while 161,000 hours of homecare could not be delivered because of staffing issues in the first three months of 2024.
Committee chair Layla Moran MP said ‘successive governments’ had failed to fix adult social care because they think reforms cost too much.
She added that this inaction ‘has a cost’
‘No one is talking about the costs we are all accepting by not reforming the system. A cost to patients and their families, a cost to the NHS, a cost to our local authorities, and a cost to the wider economy and the Treasury.’
