NHS Confederation - Time to stop the broken record and start facing the music on social care reform

22 Oct 2020 10:28 AM

Nick Ville, director of policy at the NHS Confederation, responded to the health and social care committee report on funding and workforce in social care 

“We welcome this call for increased funding for social care. However, calls for cash have been made plenty of times before, and it is long past time to stop the broken record and start facing the music. The Government must urgently provide the funding the sector needs, to avoid leaving hundreds of thousands of people without care and keep those who look after them in work.

“Like the NHS, social care faces a huge workforce shortage, with the latest estimates from Skills for Care putting vacancy levels at more than 110,000. To fill some of those vacancies, it’s vital that care work is remunerated in line with the life-changing benefit it provides to those who receive it. As the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated, social care has been treated as a second-class service for far too long, without adequate pay or recognition for the vital role of its workers, and this is truly shameful. It is high time it was given the esteem it deserves so that we can avoid another tragedy like the one we witnessed as the pandemic first began to take hold.

“We are also glad to see that the problem of unmet need and access to care has been recognised, and the acknowledgement that the additional £7 billion a year would only be a starting point. We have said time and again that the sector needs a long-term settlement and a long-term plan, just like the NHS, and we hope this report will provide the impetus so desperately needed to make that happen.”