Labour’s NHS and social care plans will save money, says Angela Rayner

Labour’s NHS and social care plans will save money, “let alone be cost neutral”, Angela Rayner has said.

The party’s healthcare funding plans have been criticized by some think tanks as falling “well short” of what is needed to make improvements.

Unions and social care bosses have said the next government must prioritize social care as the sector is “beyond broken” and tackling problems within the NHS is not enough.

The Health Foundation think tank has called on politicians to be honest with the public about the scale of the crisis facing the NHS and the amount of money needed to tackle the problems, as new analysis shows there is a potential shortfall of £38 billion a year is the funding needed to improve the NHS by the end of the next parliament.

It said a new government would face difficult choices: increase taxes to provide more funding, cut spending in other departments and services, or see the NHS ‘do less’.

When asked about the cost of Labour’s plans to improve workforce levels in the NHS, Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said on BBC Radio 4 today: “I actually think that by having that workforce plan, and I have previously worked in the social care sector, and I also represented Unison members who worked in our NHS for many years as a convener. I actually think we could save money if we could implement those reforms.

“If we could value the staff, if we could retain the staff so that we don’t have to pay huge agency fees, I think we could save money, let alone become cost neutral.

“I think it’s a scandal that we spend so much money on agency fees and keep people on carts in A&E because we don’t have the right support for people at the right time when they need it.”

Christina McAnea, Unison’s general secretary, has said that “social care is beyond broken”, adding that “its failings are having such a terrible impact on other public services, especially the NHS”.

Lyn Romeo, who left her role as England’s chief adult social worker in January after 10 years, echoed her thoughts, saying there had been “great focus on the NHS, but that won’t be enough if (the next government) doesn’t ) ) prioritizing social care and getting social care on a sustainable basis”.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health and social care secretary, admitted at the weekend that he would have liked to see Labour’s manifesto, which pledged to work towards the creation of a national care service, be “more ambitious” on social care.

Reforms to adult social care – including an £86,000 cap on the amount someone in England must spend on personal care over their lifetime – were due to be introduced by the Tory government from October 2023 but were delayed by two years.

Leaders in social care have called for a ‘step change’ in the way politicians understand and talk about the sector.

The public must be given reasons to be hopeful about the future of social care, rather than alarmed by the challenges it faces, according to an open letter to party leaders coordinated by the Local Government Association.

Parties have been criticized for not giving much space in their manifestos and campaign airtime to drawing up plans to tackle issues such as costs, labor shortages and social care wages.