Dear Secretary of State,

On Tuesday 6th March, hundreds of older and disabled people, their families and carers will travel to Westminster with the same message for Parliament: we must end the crisis in our social care system.

They will speak for the millions of individuals and families we represent who are in desperate need of care and either going without or receiving inadequate support.

Years of underfunding, combined with rising demand have resulted in a social care system that is in crisis: an unfair and confusing postcode lottery which is now facing additional cuts. This is a challenge which successive Governments have failed to overcome – but we cannot wait any longer.

The groundwork for action has been laid. Your Government acted quickly to set up the Dilnot Commission on funding social care which reported last year. Alongside the Law Commission recommendations about community care law, this report sets out a roadmap for a sustainable and clear social care system.

As you prepare to publish a White Paper on social care this Spring, older and disabled people and their families need the Government to deliver on both fronts: the funding and legal foundation of social care.

Social care law needs to give everyone confidence that they will have access to quality care, when they need it, wherever they live.

But a new framework without additional funding will not address the fundamental challenge: the shocking fact that at a time when more people need care, the numbers getting support from social care services are decreasing. Those who do get support are often shocked by the cost and the quality.

If the plans published later in the Spring do not answer the question of additional funding, they will fail.

As they meet you and other MPs on Tuesday, to ask you to seize this opportunity to act, older and disabled people and their families want to know that they are not going to be let down again. Without decisions on funding, all they will hear are empty promises.

We urge you to build on the foundation the Government has achieved so far, and deliver sustainable, funded reform for those families.

Signed

Rick Henderson
Chief Executive, Action for Advocacy
Dr Roger Wicks
Director of Research, Policy and Government Relations, Action on Hearing Loss
Patrick Vernon
Chief Executive, Afiya Trust
Michelle Mitchell
Director General, Age UK
Jeremy Hughes
Chief Executive, Alzheimer’s Society
Jane Ashcroft
Chief Executive, Anchor
Heléna Herklots
Chief Executive, Carers UK
Gillian Crosby
Chief Executive, Centre for Policy on Ageing
Srabani Sen
Chief Executive, Contact a Family
Anne Roberts
Chief Executive, Crossroads Care
Liz Sayce OBE
Chief Executive, Disability Rights UK
Martin Green
Chief Executive, The English Community Care Association 
Denise Murphy
Interim Chief Executive, Grandparents Plus
Richard Leaman
Chief Executive, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association
Rachael Byrne
Executive Director Care & Support, Home Group
Cath Stanley
Chief Executive, Huntington’s Disease Association
Janet Morrison
Chief Executive, Independent Age
Julia Unwin
Chief Executive, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Anthea Sully
Director, Learning Disability Coalition
Clare Pelham
Chief Executive, Leonard Cheshire Disability
Ciarán Devane
Chief Executive, Macmillan Cancer Support
Imelda Redmond
Director of Policy & Public Affairs, Marie Curie Cancer Care
Mark Golding
Chief Executive, Mencap
Simon Gillespie
Chief Executive, MS Society
Robert Meadowcroft
Chief Executive, Muscular Distrophy Campaign
Mark Lever
Chief Executive, The National Autistic Society
Des Kelly OBE
Executive Director, National Care Forum
Eve Richardson
Chief Executive, The National Council for Palliative Care
OI Mei Li
Director, National Family Carers Network
Jeremy Taylor
Chief Executive, National Voices
Jamie Hewitt
Government Affairs Manager, National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society
Steve Ford
Chief Executive, Parkinson’s UK
Liz Fenton
Chief Executive, The Princess Royal Trust for Carers
Judy Downey
Chair, The Relatives & Residents Association for Quality of Life of Older People in Care
Paul Jenkins
Chief Executive, Rethink Mental Illness
Lesley-Anne Alexander
Chief Executive, RNIB
Richard Hawkes
Chief Executive, Scope
Gillian Morbey
OBE, Chief Executive, Sense
Peter Beresford
Chair, Shaping Our Lives
Jon Barrick
Chief Executive, The Stroke Association
Sir Nick Partridge
Chief Executive, Terrence Higgins Trust
Lord Victor Adebowale
Chief Executive, Turning Point
Su Sayer
Chief Executive, United Response
Chris Simmonds
Chief Executive, Vitalise
Jonathan Senker
Chief Executive, VoiceAbility

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