Recent past explains why we don’t have enough services to help vulnerable people - Angela Fletcher

This is because UK government reforms in the not-too-distant past forced councils to strip them back and very little was offered in its place.

In 2015, the UK government’s ‘Building the Right Support Action Plan’ stated that it would reduce the number of people with a learning disability and or autism in specialist in-patient care by 50 per cent by March 2024. The plan was meant to improve the lives of those people in in-patient settings.

The key promises were 1) to close 35-50 per cent of in-patient beds for people who live with a learning disability and or autism and 2) the right support would be developed in the communities to help support these people.

The government’s initial response came in the form of the transforming care programme which aimed to close up to half of in-patient mental health beds and move people back to their local communities by June 2014.

This did not happen. Day services closed but little other support took its place.

Cutbacks made individuals feel less supported and as reported by NHS Digital 2021 only 5.1 per cent of adults with a learning disability known to their local authorities are in paid employment.

Here we are in 2022, and there are still not enough specialist community services available and as we have seen on TV recently, people are still living in hospitals.

In June 2022, a draft Bill to reform the mental health act was published. This bill could stop people from being sectioned for being autistic or displaying behaviour of concern not related to mental illness.

And there are specialist providers who are giving an amazing life to those people who live with a learning disability and or autism and we at Happy Futures are living proof of this. But we are still waiting for this Bill to be pushed through.

The UK government needs to act and invest more funding into social care and mental health services. Hospitals are not homes, we would love to help more people live a fulfilling life in their own communities, but the current care crisis is preventing us from doing just that.

A growing staffing shortage, the cost-of-living crisis etc. is and will continue to put local care providers on the brink of collapse.

I can remember when you used to phone a social worker for a discussion, you knew whom to ring, and how to contact them and they would support you. Now if you want to refer people to social care it’s a call centre, or a virtual case worker, we are professionals and find the system a challenge, imagine being an elderly carer new to the system.

Vulnerable people deserve more. The UK government needs to act and funding needs to be made available. Social care should be at the heart of government decision-making, this country needs social care as much as the NHS.

So yes, we don’t have enough services and that is the fallout from reforms from less than a decade ago. Sadly, as funding is squeezed even further, I only see things getting worse, the time for change is now.

Angela Fletcher is chief executive of Happy Futures