The Chancellor’s Spring Budget made no mention of social care. For those of us working in the sector, this is indicative of how poorly adult social care has been prioritised over the past few decades.
Instead, the focus of the Spring Budget was on reducing personal taxation, despite consistent polling from Ipsos showing that healthcare is the primary issue that will decide the public’s vote at the next election – ahead of inflation and the wider economic situation.
The Chancellor confirmed a ‘landmark public sector productivity plan’, funded by £3.4bn, which aims to create a more productive NHS and a £2.5bn allocation to the NHS in England for 2024-25.
Whilst widely welcomed by the sector at the time, it was highlighted that the relationship between health and social care was overlooked in the Spring Budget. Leading voices have outlined that investing in social care will allow people to have their needs met in the place they call home and reduce pressure on the NHS.
In response to the Spring Budget, Our Chief Executive Officer, Sam Monaghan, commented, ‘As expected, the Chancellor has failed to address the current crisis facing the social care sector during the Spring Budget.
‘Our ask is that, ahead of the next general election, all political parties present a credible, sustainable plan that resolves the current gap between Government funding and the cost of providing care. After decades of successive governments dodging this question, there are now nearly half a million people waiting just for a social care assessment. This cannot continue.’
In the sector, we have faced unprecedented challenges while trying to care for some of the most vulnerable members of our society. COVID-19, a workforce crisis and cuts in funding for local authorities have all led us to the point we are at today – yet the strategic investment and commitment have just not been there to support us.
As we head towards a general election, now is the time to act. In this feature, we outline MHA’s three key asks of the future governing party, to benefit everyone working in or accessing social care.
Smarter funding
At the heart of the sector’s issues is the need for better, long-term funding. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has allocated specific pots of funding over the past year, which have been welcomed. But this does not constitute sustainable investment and comes nowhere close to acknowledging the need for long-term reform.
Operating costs for care providers have increased significantly in recent years, in line with inflationary pressures and dramatically higher energy bills. In 2021/22, for example, the Government budgeted at least £2.88bn less than the actual cost of delivering care.
Local councils are being forced to make impossible decisions. Recent data published by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) shows that at least one third of adult social care leaders in England need to find an additional £83.7m of cuts. This is on top of the £806m in savings that directors across England had already committed to make in their budgets.
It’s argued that the true impact on local councils will be even higher, because the cost of providing care to everyone who is going to need it is not included in the projections. As aforementioned, there are currently around half a million people either waiting for their care needs to be assessed or waiting for their care to start.
Once they’ve undergone their assessments, many of these people will be eligible for some level of local council funding, which needs to be factored into future budgets. A recognition that local authorities simply cannot continue to deliver more for less is long overdue.
We are not unrealistic in our expectations here, and we appreciate that Government budgets are not endless. Even if political parties don’t believe they can raise the £8bn per year that the sector needs, having a tangible plan for reform would really help us as providers to understand how we can be more strategic, or what we might be able to achieve in the longer term.
It’s also important to recognise the contribution that social care gives back to local authorities, particularly through local workforces. The Women’s Budget Group (WBG) has shown that investing 2% of GDP in the care sector could create up to 1.5 million jobs.
A comprehensive workforce strategy
More than three quarters (78%) of UK adults say they would feel proud to have a family member working in the social care sector, according to research we carried out with YouGov in 2023. In the survey of more than 2,000 people, 81% of respondents also said they viewed social care as skilled work, with 71% believing they should be paid the same as healthcare assistants in the NHS. But this is not the reality.
Recognising and valuing the professionals who work in social care is key to securing a strong pipeline of talent – paying people fairly, investing in skills and training and enabling more flexible working patterns.
The fact that people currently struggle to see a structured and rewarding career path is preventing them from joining or remaining in the sector. This is particularly true of the younger generation, who are the least likely to consider a career in social care according to our research.
There are approximately 152,000 vacancies across the sector, and we have seen little evidence of a plan to solve this problem to date. The Government’s Care Workforce Pathway had some encouraging elements, but it didn’t feel cohesive enough as a framework. Nor was there enough thinking behind how we can attract new people to work in the sector or train, develop and reward those who already do – and that’s what we desperately need.
Yet another avenue of recruitment was closed off to the sector recently, as professional carers from overseas are no longer entitled to bring their dependants with them. In 2023, MHA welcomed 300 talented colleagues from overseas, all of whom play a vital role across our services.
We’re proud of how we’ve been able to help so many people settle into their roles and establish new lives. Our worry is that, with the new legislation, we will see fewer people applying to work in care in the UK.
We want to see more thinking from the Government around what a future workforce strategy could look like and how it would be rolled out. One that encourages people from all ages and backgrounds to apply, makes flexible working a possibility to bring more people back to a career in care, offers fair pay – in line with NHS colleagues – and delivers continuous development and opportunities for progression.
Ultimately, we want to see a clear demonstration that frontline care workers are valued for the role they play in society and that social care is seen as a respected and rewarding career option.
A Social Care Council
We believe this vision can be achieved through the establishment of a Social Care Council. This would act as an independent body tackling key issues around recruitment and retention. It would also help to improve the perception of the social care profession, so that it becomes an attractive career choice for more people and is valued and respected by all.
As a sector, we are under no illusion about the scale of the challenges we face, but this is also now being reflected in the general public’s attitudes towards social care. The King’s Fund recently released the results of its British Social Attitudes Survey, in partnership with Nuffield Trust. It reveals that public satisfaction with social care services has fallen, with 57% of respondents citing inadequate pay, working conditions and training for social care professionals as the thing they are most dissatisfied with.
This is exactly what we’d like to see the Government address through a Social Care Council. As part of the recruitment and retention plan, the body could examine everything from pay scales and shift patterns, to family friendly working policies, upskilling and continuous personal development. We can only secure the future of social care by elevating its status as a profession.
Room for social care?
We appreciate that health and the economy will be big talking points in Westminster this year and beyond. The truth is, social care has a big impact on both of these issues, yet it’s a topic that’s often confined to the back benches.
We know that solving all of the sector’s issues will require significant investment, and that any funding needs to be introduced in an affordable and manageable way. But we also know that this investment reaps rewards for older people, for the NHS and for local economies.
As we approach a general election, we are urging all parties to elevate social care, giving it parity with other major policy decisions. We want to see manifestos that commit to a long-term investment strategy, that address local authority funding, bring some much-needed financial stability to the sector and help us to find, train and retain a highly qualified and fairly rewarded workforce.
Do you agree with MHA’s proposal to create a Social Care Council? Leave a comment on this article or join the conversation to share your thoughts.
Dan Ryan is Chief Operating Officer at MHA.
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