Blackburn with Darwen resident waits 616 days for care assessment

Last year, the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee found social care was facing the biggest workforce “crisis” in its history - and would need to find some 490,000 more employees by the early part of the 2030s.

A new study by the Shared Data Unit and BBC Wales looked into the social care crisis in the UK over the last two years after campaign groups highlighted the issue of understaffing across the system has never been properly addressed.

The data revealed that in Blackburn with Darwen, the average wait for a care assessment in 2022/2023 was 25 days, three days more than the previous year.

In order to receive funding for a care package, individuals need to have a care assessment so the council can check their eligibility. The longest individual wait in Blackburn with Darwen was 616 days, meaning a resident waited almost two years to be assessed.

In the same year, a person in Oldham had been waiting more than double the amount of time (1,419) as Blackburn with Darwen’s worst case.

Councillor Mustafa Desai, Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: “It’s important to us that waiting times for social work assessments are monitored and kept to a minimum. All initial referrals are triaged to assess risk and are prioritised accordingly.

“Our social care teams work closely with partners, including the voluntary sector, and will signpost individuals to other services where appropriate to ensure they can access appropriate support.

“We continually review demand across adult social care and any cases waiting more than 28 days from initial contact to completion of a statutory assessment are internally reviewed and flagged for consideration.

“The longest waiting times recorded are significantly higher than the averages of 22 days (2021/22) and 25 days (2022/23) – in both cases, these represent exceptions to the norm linked to specific circumstances. An example of specific circumstances would be a young person transitioning into adult services with an intentionally extended assessment period.”

The data team also asked 211 authorities across the country how many individual domiciliary care contracts had been handed back to the council, as well as asking how many individuals died waiting for a package to start.

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council didn’t provide BBC Wales and the Shared Data team figures on these two questions but when Lancashire Telegraph contacted the council, they stated that during the period in question, 2021/22 and 2022/23, the local authority did not have a domiciliary care contract handed back.

The council also told the Lancashire Telegraph that they are not aware of any deaths caused as a specific consequence of waiting for assessed care packages as “this data is not a reporting requirement and is not kept routinely.”

Out of the 211 authorities, only 83 councils provided data. The results revealed that at least 1,399 people died while waiting for their local authority to arrange a care package for them in 2022-2023 alone.

In the same year, 72 per cent of councils had handed back at least one contract because the private provider could no longer fulfil the obligations of its contract.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK isn’t surprised by these findings as she says they echo what Age UK hears all the time.

She said: “These are problems only Government can solve and until they take decisive action to reform and invest in social care it's hard to see these figures improving. Indeed, in the face of an ageing population they are likely to get worse."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Overall, waiting lists for care have reduced and there are more people working in social care.

"But there is more to do, which is why we’re providing up to an additional £7.5 billion for social care over the next two years – including £1.4 billion to help reduce adult social care waiting times, increase workforce capacity and retention as well as increase fee rates paid to adult social care providers.

“The workforce is at the centre of our ‘Next Steps to Put People at the Heart of Care’ plan and we’re investing up to £250 million for the development the skills of the workforce.

"This is on top of our Made with Care domestic recruitment campaign and a £15 million boost for recruitment of overseas care workers.”