The social care system is not just for Christmas

Editor,

Your readers may have heard recently of the £240m of extra money being allocated to the social care system to ease pressure on the NHS this winter.

We now know this will mean that just over £12,006,320 will be made available across Greater Manchester.

While it’s important that the Government has recognised that social care underfunding lies at the heart of our hospitals’ winter pressures, the amount committed is a let-down – less than 10-per-cent of what’s needed to fix the social care crisis now.

The social care system is ‘not just for Christmas’ and people with dementia, as its biggest recipients, are experiencing the emotional and economic cost all year round.

To actually turn the tide for the nearly 30,000 people with dementia in Greater Manchester we need to plug the current funding gap and offer them the chance to access the good quality social care they have a right to.

Sue Clarke

Alzheimer’s Society Services Manager for Greater Manchester

The views expressed are those of the author of the letter and not those of Oldham Chronicle.