00:00It's the single biggest cost to Kent's largest local authority, with the budget for adult social care at Kent County
00:07Council set at a staggering £787 million for this year.
00:14Just under half the entire revenue budget and 80% higher than it was just five years ago.
00:22I think it's a crazy situation. I think every government for the last 20 years have kicked down the road.
00:28Every white paper, every green paper that's ever been produced has not come to fruition. So the whole system is
00:35broken.
00:35Upper tier and unitary authorities have a legal duty to provide support and care to vulnerable people. As of January,
00:43more than 19,000 people over the age of 65 were using KCC social care services.
00:51Older people are not the problem. It's our failure to plan and produce services in advance that is the big
00:58problem. Back when I was at medical school, when we were still using quill pens, I remember having lectures about
01:04the fact that we were going to have an ageing population with additional needs and so on.
01:09And also people were starting to say, well, if we get better at medicine, people live longer, so they get
01:14older and they have these problems. So we failed to respond to it.
01:18Medway has a younger population than wider Kent on average, but it's still set to pay more than 20%
01:25of its budget this year on care services.
01:29Preventative care is at the top of the agenda, even as the council enters its third year of exceptional financial
01:38support.
01:38If we say, well, it's not sustainable and therefore we're going to stop doing it. What is the alternative? There
01:45isn't one. We have to make it as sustainable as possible. We have to make changes that can bed in
01:50and help us to understand the way that we can deliver care in the most efficient and effective way.
01:57Work is ongoing here in Westminster to try and improve delivery of adult social care, with Baroness Casey leading a
02:06commission to try and make care more sustainable going forward.
02:09But MPs warn there's no quick fix to any of this.
02:14I agree that infrastructure has not caught up with the demand that we have seen over the years.
02:22So lack of investment from consecutive governments in that social care sector has contributed into this crisis.
02:31We are in a crisis situation now and we need to deal with it.
02:33A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said they are delivering a funding boost of over £4.6 billion,
02:42as well as improving pay and recruitment for care staff.
02:48But as local authorities warn of likely overspends, the future of services for Kent's most vulnerable is far from certain.
02:57Olly Leader in Westminster.
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