Home care preferred over moving into residential care.

Home care preferred over moving into residential care.

UKHCA, the professional association for homecare providers responds to estimates undertaken by the UK's largest care home provider, Four Seasons Health Care, suggesting that:

providing just a few hours of care visits a day for elderly people in their own homes may be costing the taxpayer more than it would to provide around the clock care in a care home.

UKHCA notes that whilst in some individual cases it will be less expensive for the state to fund people’s care in residential settings, it is not clear that this is the case generally. More importantly, such an assertion completely ignores people’s overwhelming preference for support to meet their care needs in their own homes.

UKHCA’s Policy Director, Colin Angel, said:

Around nine in ten people would prefer to be cared for in their own homes if the need arose, with around just 8% expressing a preference for residential care.” (note 7).

Successive governments have signalled the need for people's social care needs to be supported in a way which maintains independence for as long as possible, helping people through better support in their local community. (note 8).

UKHCA strongly supports the right of people to choose the most appropriate care setting to meet their needs and preferences. We remain committed to working with Government and bodies across health and social care to promote effective and efficient services that enable people to live well at home and in their own communities.

Read more on the UKHCA website.