CALLING FOR Commitment

Order To Survive

During April 2023, the UK Government made an announcement that caused ripples through the social care sector, with organisations across the country calling for change. The news saw the government adapt its plans to reform social care, halving the funding that was previously promised.

Promise

Just weeks before the announcement was made, the funding was revealed, promising £500 million to develop the adult social care workforce. The offer was aimed at creating opportunities for the workforce by developing their skills and providing additional training to deliver the best quality of care, and was described as the next step in the recovery of the workforce after the pandemic.

This funding was also launched to attract new staff into the sector, and to support the mental health and wellbeing of people already working in it. Now cut to just £250 million, the commitment has been halved.

“[The] announcement is incredibly disappointing, falling woefully short of the transformational reform to social care the government promised,” comments Richard Kramer, chief executive of disability charity Sense (www.sense.org.uk).

The new reduction in funding wasn’t surprising for social care providers or disabled people’s organisations: they have fought for additional support for years with little response, stressing the detrimental effect that increasing costs and worsening conditions were having on the state of care in the UK. For them, this change signifies more than a funding cut.

Missed Opportunity

“The watering down of plans demonstrates a lack of serious commitment to fixing social care,” stresses Richard. “It will be those who depend on it the most, disabled people, older people and unpaid carers who pay the price.”

In the UK, unpaid carers have been estimated to save the government as much as £530 million per day, and this figure only accounts for the unpaid carers that have identified themselves on carers’ registers or with support organisations.

The funding was aimed at remedying some of the issues currently impacting social care, both in how providers survive and how care itself is given. The current workforce crisis facing the sector was to be the main target of the full funding, an issue which is getting worse as the cost of living increases and the number of people in need of care rises.

With higher bills for energy and food paired with national standards for wages and inflation rising, more than 40 per cent of providers have been forced to close parts of their organisation or hand back care contracts to local authorities in order to cope. Without more support, people who desperately need social care will pay the price.

“Too many disabled people are missing out on the care they need because there aren’t enough care workers with the right skills,” highlights Richard. “Now is the time to ramp up investment in the workforce rather than slashing it and exacerbating the workforce crisis.”

With no end in sight for the causes of strain for social care, action is needed to ensure providers can survive, and that people can access essential care.

For More Information

Learn more about the impact of the workforce crisis from Care England (www.careengland.org.uk)