SOCIAL CARE – MATTHEW WORT

Matthew Wort Partner, health and social care sector lead 0121 214 3501 matthew.wort@anthonycollins.com

SOCIAL CARE

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2021

“An unexpected development in 2020 was the increase in the availability of people to work in social care... However, people joining the social care workforce will not be retained for the long-term until the sector is no longer treated as second class to the NHS.”

2020 was an opportunity for much of what is good about the social care sector to shine. The huge resilience, passion, creativity and commitment of the people who work in social care has shone through as the sector worked collectively to continue to deliver high quality care, striving to keep people safe.

Increasingly the sector has worked collaboratively to find solutions, addressing shortcomings in Government guidance as it unfolded, and sector bodies have played a key role in helping the Government keep up with the approaches being adopted on the ground. However, whatever the commitment of the people working in the sector, ultimately if there is not enough money in the system it can’t deliver. Many fear 2021 will be a tipping point.

So what should we see in 2021? Our key hopes for the sector are:

Attracting and retaining people in the sector joining from other industries An unexpected development in 2020 was the increase in the availability of people to work in social care. This significantly reduced the recruitment and retention challenges that were a key risk at the start of 2020. This will also mitigate some of the impact of Brexit on the recruitment of workers into the sector. However, people joining the social care workforce will not be retained for the long-term until the sector is no longer treated as second class to the NHS.

Parity of pay and esteem with the NHS It should be a national outrage that care providers who are delivering publicly funded social care are not funded to meet a national minimum pay scale. Why does the NHS have agreed pay scales but not social care? A national standard needs to be agreed and public funding then needs to recognise the costs of delivering it. If ever there was a time when the public at large would understand the need for fair reward it is now. Implementing the Dilnot reforms Capping care costs and ending the arbitrary distinction that people with dementia have to meet their own care costs but those with health issues such as cancer do not. This will clearly come at a cost but it will be 10 years since the Dilnot commission and no-one has grasped the nettle. Many families continue to sell off their assets to fund treatment, giving huge disparities in where the costs of care falls.

Pay parity and cost capping Pay parity and cost capping cannot be delivered without more funding for the sector. We all need to accept and be prepared to accommodate tax or national insurance increases to fund the costs of delivering high quality care.

Politics being parked As a starting point, if all political parties could agree on the need for significant extra funding it would move the debate forward significantly.

A public enquiry into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic It is clear that there are many lessons to be learned from the pandemic, many of which will shine a spotlight on systematic flaws in our current disjointed system and the impact funding sources have on the ability to access the right care at the right time. The long delay in the Government’s plans for social care show they don’t yet have a solution, and we consider learning from the outcome of a public enquiry should play a key part in helping design a more efficient and effective system for delivering care and responding to future pandemics.

Collaboration from the regulator Through the pandemic, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been largely silent whilst providers strived to manage many competing risks. If ever there was a time that providers need a supportive regulator that helps providers achieve the best outcomes, it is now.