In Brighton, the Liberal Democrats affirmed their commitment to health and social care as their signature policy commitment. Significantly, the election of one of their MPs, Layla Moran, as Health and Social Care Committee Chair, signals a determination to offer robust challenge to Government’s performance.
The Conservatives’ leadership election precluded meaningful social care discussion at their Birmingham conference. We can but hope that the eyebrow-raising comments of one leadership contender, ‘we need to make sure we are thinking about the next generation, not just who’s going to wipe bottoms for us today,’ are not representative of the party’s views. For the foreseeable future, it seems that constructive opposition will come from the Liberal Democrats.
Inevitably, Labour’s gathering attracted most attention. Setting aside the controversies about gifts, hospitality and the winter fuel allowance, there were warm words aplenty in Liverpool. The Prime Minister talked about the ‘vital, life-affirming work’ of his sister, a care worker, ‘work that surely we know by now is so important for the future of this country.’ Wouldn’t it be great, he asked, if ‘she could walk into any room and instantly command the same respect as the Prime Minister?’
I cannot remember any Prime Minister speaking of care in such uplifting terms. It was reiterated by Wes Streeting, as Secretary of State, who pledged to deliver ‘a New Deal for Care Professionals: A Fair Pay Agreement, to improve pay and conditions and give staff the status and respect they deserve – our first step towards building a National Care Service.’
More encouraging still was Wes Streeting’s acknowledgement that he was present as Social Care Secretary as much as Health Secretary. Too often social care has been an after-thought, so parity with the NHS is overdue. But these sentiments alone will not elevate social care in the hierarchy of political and fiscal priorities.
There are three lessons for Government to translate words into action. The first is avoiding viewing social care purely as adjunct to the NHS. It is true that the NHS can’t be fixed without fixing social care. But the wider economic and social benefits of investing in social care should not be underestimated. A National Care Service must be more ambitious than a national support service for the NHS.
The second lesson is that whilst improving care workers’ pay and conditions is a good start, the promised 10-year plan needs to tackle all challenges facing social care. This should include action on the state of council finances, otherwise, as the County Councils Network has recently warned, councils will increasingly struggle to meet statutory care duties at the expense of other vital services such as leisure and libraries.
The third lesson is that if Government does proceed with an independent review, such as a royal commission, it must be clear about what it wants to achieve, reflected in a clear terms of reference; a skilled and respected chair; a tight timescale; and a means of involving everyone involved in social care to harness their ideas, knowledge and experience. The review must promote reform, not be an excuse to postpone it.
All eyes now turn to the Chancellor’s first budget on 30th October. Crucially it will determine how to fill the £22bn ‘black hole’ identified by the Treasury and will include the 2024/25 local government finance settlement. The mood music is of hard choices to ‘fix the foundations’ – but no return to austerity.
Want to learn more about the rumoured royal commission on social care? Read the latest feature from Kathryn Smith, Chief Executive at the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), here.
Richard Humphries is a Senior Policy Advisor to the Health Foundation.
Email: [email protected] X: @RichardnotatKF