How extra care can help tackle the social care crisis

With the government recently announcing a new tax to help fund adult social care, through a 1.25 percentage point increase in national insurance, there has been much debate in recent weeks about whether this will be enough to resolve the social care crisis, or whether National Insurance is the right mechanism through which to address the issue.

With all the focus on funding, something else has been missed – not merely how to fund social care, but how it is provided. This is acutely important, particularly in Bristol, where the over 65s account for every one in seven people, while there are 9,100 people aged 85 or older. By 2043, Bristol City Council predicts there will be a 40% increase over 75s in the city.

With a rapidly aging population, existing social care services come under greater strain and demand for age-appropriate housing grows. As we detail here, extra care, sometimes called housing with care, assisted living or a continuing care retirement community, is a relatively new model of retirement living in the UK, but one that can help address the social care crisis.

Extra care as a model of later living sits between care homes and more traditional retirement communities. It is distinct from the former in providing residents with independent living in their own cottages or apartments, but with care and support available both within their own home and within the residents’ facilities. And it is different to more traditional retirement communities in providing significantly more support and care for the residents, which can be increased or decreased depending on need. This allows residents to remain in the community as they age, easing pressures on traditional care homes and the NHS, in particular by reducing both admissions and the length of hospital stays.

A report commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care and undertaken by the King’s Fund and the University of York recently found that there is “overwhelming evidence” that this extra care model provides substantial and widespread benefits, keeping older people healthier and more independent and reducing the levels of health and care support they need.

These benefits include:

• Reduced visits to GPs

• Reductions in use of community nursing services

• Reduction in length of hospital stays

• Reductions in hospital admissions

• Reduced ambulance and emergency call outs

• Reductions in care and care equipment costs

• Reduced likelihood of entering a care home or other long-term care

The report also finds evidence of significant benefits to older people themselves, including:

• More exercise, fitness and independence

• Better perceived health

• Reductions in falls

• Reduced frailty

• Increased life expectancy

• Lower levels of depression, loneliness, isolation and anxiety

• Improvements in memory and mental function

• Improved sense of community and wellbeing

• Reduced cognitive decline

• Better contact levels with friends and family

• Improved confidence in self-managing health

• More of a sense of control for residents

The report demonstrates that the extra care model can play a vital role in supporting our health and social are systems and in keeping older people healthy, independent and well for longer.

These benefits go well beyond the health and well-being of the residents of the community, and lead to significant costs savings to the NHS and social care.

But there are further societal benefits as well. For example, extra care communities can help free up housing in the local market, as residents will often, by freeing up family homes for up-sizers and in turn smaller homes for younger families or first-time buyers.

Learn more about these and other benefits of the extra care model.