Sustainable planning for the care sector must replace short-term cash injections, The Health Foundation said as it published projected costs for adult social care.
Analysis by the charity found that to meet demand in England, an additional £8.3bn could be needed by 2032-33, while more comprehensive funding could total £18.4bn.
The higher total could improve staff conditions, ensure providers are fully funded and relieve pressure on unpaid carers by expanding access, The Health Foundation said.
Director of research Anita Charlesworth said: ‘Our political system is struggling to cope with the scale of the challenge facing social care and the range of issues that need to be fixed simultaneously.
‘What is clear is that there is a big price tag just to stop quality and access to care deteriorating.’
‘The fundamental problems facing England’s social care system are the legacy of decades of political failure; with repeated short-term injections of cash to limit the immediate crisis but no long-term planning for the future’, she added.
Chairman of the Local Government Association’s community wellbeing board, Cllr David Fothergill, said: ‘Significant uplifts are needed in funding for social care in order to meet future demand, let alone address the ever-growing rise in current unmet and under-met need.
‘This needs to begin at the Autumn Statement.’
