Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many elderly people in the UK presently require social care; what is their estimate of the increase in the number of elderly people requiring social care over the next 10 years; and what is both their short-term and long-term strategy to address the provision of social care for the elderly.

Social care is a means tested service. The Care Act 2014 requires that local authorities must assess any adult who appears to have a care and support need. If a person has eligible care needs and meets the means test criteria the local authority must arrange a package of care.

The latest available data suggests that:

- 200,000 packages of short term care were provided in 2015-16 by local authorities; and

- 400,000 elderly people were receiving long term care funded by their local authority on 31 March 2016.

The Personal Social Services Research Unit estimates that this number will increase to 500,000 by 2025, and 590,000 by 2030. (These demand projections cover long term care only).

NHS Digital publishes a report on the social care activity of Councils with Adult Social Services Responsibilities in England. A copy of Community Care Statistics, Social Services Activity, England, 2015-16 is attached.

The Care Act received Royal Assent in May 2014. The Act sets out the legislative framework for the most significant and far-reaching programme of reform in adult social care undertaken since 1948. It is having a profound impact on the way the system works, the responsibilities of local government and partners, and the rights, outcomes and experience of people who need care, carers and their families. The first phase of the Care Act implemented, from April 2015, saw the introduction of a large number of reforms including establishing a new statutory “wellbeing principle” and a national minimum eligibility threshold for care and support.