Thousands of elderly people are missing out on free personal care because of council delays in assessments and care arrangements with around 10% not receiving services within the required time-frame over the last three years.
Delay
Charity Age Scotland is Scotland’s leading authority on older people and ageing. They have reported that official figures show that approximately 8,640 people each year have to wait longer than the national guideline for care assessments. The research has found that the time taken by councils varies when it comes to carrying out the checks.
The average wait is between two weeks and six months, with the longest delay recorded being 575 days or 18 months in 2014-15, a long way off the national guidelines which state that people should have to wait no longer than six weeks for care services.
As expected
Most councils have not recorded specific reasons for delays but many have blamed more general issues as the cause. Many have said that in some instances a person has been admitted to hospital or placed on a waiting list for a chosen care home. Other reasons stated included staff shortages, financial constraints and delay in the times taken to adapt homes for the person.
Age Scotland received the information from 25 out of 32 councils and confirmed that the results were as expected based on what they had experienced. Chief executive Keith Robson said: “This is consistent with the experiences of a number of older people and their families who have been in touch with Age Scotland’s helpline to give us feedback on delays in the system.”
