Baroness Casey said the care system is fragile and divided, with drawn out discussions over who pays for what, making it anxiety-laden and confusing for those who need support.
“People spend hours and hours and weeks and weeks trying to sort out care for their family”, she said.
“Dealing with all sorts of issues from the multiple different letters, the multiple different assessments, multiple financial assessments,” she added.
She believes a stock-take is needed to create an adult social care system which meets the needs of the current population, as people are increasingly living longer with more complex needs.
Baroness Casey will deliver her first tough assessment of the problems that need fixing to an audience of health and care professionals at a conference in Windsor on Thursday afternoon.
She will point to a total reliance nationally on underpaying care workers and an imbalance in power between the NHS and council-run social care, which ends up serving the institutions not people.
“We’ve still got people earning less than the minimum wage. They are often not paid for travel, they are often not paid for holidays,” she said.