Millions are being let down by social care. It’s time for a rethink | David Brindle

Splitting social workers into adult and children’s camps has led to big gaps in care. Could reuniting them be the answer?

What will finally tip England’s penurious town halls over the edge? Will it be the costs of emergency social care for many of the 1.4 million older people in England who struggle to carry out daily tasks but get little or no support? Or will it be the bill for emergency intervention for many of the 1.6 million children with complex needs who appear to receive no formal help?

Council chiefs are grimly divided over which is their biggest headache, but it’s a desperate outlook either way, and one that would have seemed barely conceivable 50 years ago when Harold Wilson’s Labour government published a blueprint for modern social services. Known as the Seebohm report, it envisaged “a community-based and family-orientated service, which will be available to all”. A patchwork of disparate services, from home help for older people to mental health social work and what was then known as child guidance, would be swept up in single local government departments that would have a clear focus on the family as a whole, rather than be “symptom-centred”, and would meet the needs of all ages.

Related: Risks to children 'the biggest social justice challenge of our time'

Related: Don’t blame social workers. It’s the system that’s broken | Louise Tickle

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from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2uXX9gH