The current narrative devalues social care

Cllr David Baines, Leader of St Helens Borough Council, Local Government Association @LGAcomms

Social care has been chronically underfunded for over a decade and, as delayed hospital discharges become a greater issue for the health service, it is important to recognise that stopping people from turning up at the front door of hospitals is just as important as supporting people to leave safely, well and in a timely manner.

The Local Government Association, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and Solace (the representative body for senior strategic managers working in the public sector) recently jointly wrote to the Secretary of State for Health, Rt Hon Steve Barclay MP, asking the Government to urgently engage with councils and care sector partners, including people with lived experience, to address the current delays in discharging people from hospitals.

Much of the recent narrative on social care suggests it exists solely to ease pressure on the NHS and is failing to do its job. Many people draw on social care to support them to live independent and fulfilling lives and the continual focus on supporting the NHS, important though it is, devalues the huge contribution care and support makes in its own right to people and communities. Until the Government understands and presents social care as an essential service in its own right – valued as equally highly as the NHS – we will continue to go from one sticking plaster to the next.

Current pressures can only be addressed by collaborative working in every area between councils, the NHS and wider health and care providers and a range of measures across systems.

We have consistently said that £13bn is needed for social care, so that its many pressures can be addressed, and councils can deliver on all of their statutory duties. This is the level of investment needed to ensure people of all ages can live an equal life and reduce the need for hospital treatment in the first place. Social care will never truly thrive if we continue to fail to address any of the root causes of this situation.

Piecemeal funding is no substitute for a strategic approach to the pressure on hospital beds, which requires a much broader range of actions to prevent admission, streamline discharge for those who do not need ongoing health or social care and focus on capacity to support recovery.

We cannot keep feeding the NHS and starve social care

Nadra Ahmed CBE, Executive Chairman, National Care Association @NationalCareAsc

It is important, in the context of the question, to acknowledge that this is not the first hospital discharge plan the social care sector has seen.

Every year the sector is faced with a dilemma of delayed hospital discharges as the winter months approach: the attention then turns to the ability of the social care sector to ease mounting pressures on the NHS. By and large, social care has always worked hard to create solutions and provide support when called upon to do so.

The difference this time is that a pot of money has been made available by the Government, which is time limited, to support the discharge process. Colleagues in the NHS have worked, through a Taskforce, to consider solutions in collaboration with local authorities and, for the first time, care providers have been around the table too.

However, group thinking remains very much NHS focused: with strong interventions which providers were able to influence, stressing the need for a wraparound service to support social care teams, as they deliver care to individuals admitted who need ongoing clinical interventions to enable the best possible outcomes for them.

The funding released by the Government is a short-term fix and on its own it will not create sustainable solutions for the future; however, as a blueprint for future investment to alleviate pressures on the NHS, it stands a chance. Success for the model can only be achieved if there is real investment in the social care sector simultaneously; without that, it’s likely to be another failed initiative from the Government.

To create a sustainable hospital discharge plan that is truly fit for the future, there is an urgent need to establish a social care system which can not only cater for the complexities of the individuals being cared for but is also funded accordingly.

We cannot keep feeding the NHS and starve social care, because by doing so we are continuing to do what we always do while expecting a different outcome. The people we care for deserve much better than this and the Government has a duty to deliver a solution.

With the care sector experiencing an ever-increasing workforce vacancy rate, it’s important for providers to consider if they are maximising the benefits of working with volunteers. Dr Allison Smith, Head of Research and Insight at Royal Voluntary Service, shares findings from a recent report and explains the role of volunteers in the care sector.

Royal Voluntary Service is one of the largest volunteering organisations in Great Britain,