Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-10-29.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of elderly people experiencing loneliness.
Alistair Burt
The Government has not made an estimate of the number of elderly people experiencing loneliness, but recognises that in an increasingly mobile and more fractured society, isolation and loneliness is a significant social issue.
Through the Care Act 2014 the Government has placed a duty on local authorities to have measures in place to identify people in their area who would benefit from universal services to help reduce, delay or prevent needs for care and support. This includes needs that may arise from loneliness and social isolation.
Given the complexity of loneliness and the different ways that people are affected there is no single solution that can tackle loneliness and having a range of interventions and solutions is helpful. The Department has funded the Social Care Institute for Excellence to develop and run the Prevention Library which includes examples of emerging practice to prevent, reduce or delay peoples care and support needs from deteriorating.
The Department has supported a ‘digital toolkit’ for local commissioners, which was developed by the Campaign to End Loneliness, and is now incorporated in their guidance Loneliness and Isolation: Guidance for Local Authorities and Commissioners. This supports commissioners in understanding, mapping and commissioning for loneliness and social isolation in their communities, and includes promising approaches to tackling loneliness.
We are building a better understanding of how prevention can maintain people’s wellbeing and the evidence base on the effectiveness of interventions is expanding. Through the Prevention Library local authorities can learn from emerging practice, and exchange ideas and experience of the impact of information, advice and befriending services.
