Labour has discarded its social care commitments and seems set to repeat the failure of previous governments to tackle the care crisis, the sector’s leaders have warned.
Announcements by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, that she would not cap costs for older people’s care and Stephen Kinnock, the care minister, that he would scrap a fund giving training for 37,000 care workers, have alarmed the social care sector.
Writing in the Observer, the chief executives of Care England (CE), the Homecare Association (HA) and the National Care Forum (NCF) say ministers have chosen to prioritise the NHS over social care, while failing to recognise they are interdependent.
Labour’s manifesto included pledges to introduce a National Care Service and other elements of “deep reform” in its manifesto. Reeves will deliver her first budget on 30 October and has blamed the Conservatives for leaving a £22bn black hole in the public finances, but the leaders say that social care faces a set of problems that require urgent attention.
“For decades, successive UK governments have failed to take responsibility for a growing social care crisis. This government must not continue that pattern,” write Prof Martin Green of CE, Vic Rayner of NCF, Dr Jane Towson of HA and Suhail Mirza, non-executive director of Newcross Healthcare. “Yet, in a little over one month in office, the government has done [and] said little to suggest that social care under their watch will fare much better, a view reinforced by the deafening silence on social care in Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on 27 August. We urge the government to change course.”
Care homes and homecare providers have been operating with staff vacancies of more than 100,000 for several years, making it increasingly hard for families of older people and those with disabilities to find help. Carers can often make more money in supermarkets and staff turnover is high.
Although vacancies have fallen, most of the posts have been filled by care workers from overseas, something which has become increasingly difficult since immigration controls were introduced in March to ban them from bringing partners or children. The number of British social care workers has fallen by 70,000 in the past two years.
Skills for Care, which tracks the workforce, says that another 430,000 social care workers will be needed in the next decade to deal with the UK’s ageing population.
“It will be vital for the UK to train its own workforce to meet these numbers and, to do that, the sector has to be one attractive to those who are or will become part of the wider labour market,” the leaders say.
The shortage of care workers means that family members feel they have to give up work to look after their relatives, while some older patients cannot be easily discharged from hospital.
The leaders say it is “long overdue to see social care as a partner to the NHS, deserving the parity of esteem that has long been denied it”.
“It is now time for the government to ‘think social care first’ across policy departments,” they say.
“The government’s well-publicised review of the NHS will be severely undermined without proper funding, fair rates of pay and support for the workforce careers.
“The government continues to seek to display its adherence to fiscal prudence but while its manifesto commitments for the NHS remain in place, initiatives for social care have been discarded.
“Will we have to wait for tragedies and scandals for those receiving (or waiting to receive) care before meaningful action is taken?”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We know adult social care faces significant challenges. There are inconsistent standards, chronic staff shortages and people are not always treated with the care and dignity they deserve – this needs to change.
“Long-term reform is desperately needed in social care. We will work with the sector and build consensus to undertake a programme of reform, building a National Care Service to deliver high-quality care across the country.”
