Unless Labour wakes up on social care, tragedies will happen

Ssummer, 160 years ago. Abraham Lincoln wrote in a letter to then-Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by escaping it today.” Those words could apply to a plethora of current global challenges—climate change, inequality, war in Europe—but it seems that social care might be an exception.

For decades, successive British governments have failed to take responsibility for a growing crisis in social care. This government must not continue that pattern. Yet in little over a month in power, the government has done and said little to suggest that social care will improve significantly under its watch, a view reinforced by the deafening silence on social care in Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on 27 August. We urge the government to change course.

During the election campaign, Labour talked about a national care service and supporting social care workers throughout their careers. But within a month in office, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced she would scrap plans to cap social care spending on older people.

A day later, Stephen Kinnock, the care secretary, announced that the government would not continue with the social care training and development fund introduced by his Conservative predecessor, which had allocated almost £54 million to support 37,000 social care workers to gain the new Level 2 adult care certificate. Mr Kinnock added that he would support the new career path within social care and that the Level 2 certificate would continue, without giving details of how it would be funded.

Such is the level of concern within the sector that Care England, the Homecare Association and the National Care Forum – along with 30 other social care leaders – have signed an unprecedented open letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care expressing their concerns about the government’s decisions on adult social care.

We stated candidly: “Warm words about the economic importance of adult social care and the commitment to finding a cross-party solution for this fundamental public service have sounded hollow in light of the decisions announced around funding and reform.”

On a recent Voices of concern podcast, from Newcross Healthcare – a channel dedicated to the voice of the health and social care sector – we asked the key question: “Why hasn’t social care been fixed, some 25 years after the last Royal Commission and after so many white papers and green papers?” To be honest, the focus is always on the NHS. Politicians don’t understand how the NHS is an interdependent system with social care. We transform lives and local economies.

The recent Skills for Care report (The Size and Structure of the Adult Social Care Sector, published on 18 July) found that while vacancies in social care had fallen, most of the change was due to an increased contribution from international colleagues. The report also found that the number of British nationals in social care had fallen by 70,000 in the past two years.

It was predicted that an additional 430,000 social care workers would be needed within the next decade. It will be vital for the UK to train its own workforce to meet these numbers and to do this the sector must be attractive to those who are or will be part of the wider labour market.

A key milestone in this regard was the publication of the adult social care workforce strategy by Skills for Care, also published on 18 July. With numerous recommendations, it is hoped that it will inform all stakeholders (particularly government policy and funding) to attract, retain and support the career development of the social care workforce.

The government needs to shift its rhetoric on social care from cold cost accounting to one of its contributions to the economy.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, has made it clear that he wants to move away from the beggar mentality and see health and social care as part of the fundamental economy to help the rest of the economy succeed. We contribute about £60 billion to the economy, more than farming and utilities. It should be seen as an industry in its own right.

And it is long past time to see social care as a partner to the NHS, deserving of the equal respect it has long been denied. It is now time for government to “think social care first” across policy departments.

The government’s well-publicised overhaul of the NHS will be seriously undermined without proper funding, fair wages and support for the careers of the workforce. The government continues to attempt to demonstrate its commitment to fiscal prudence, but while its manifesto commitments to the NHS remain in place, initiatives for social care have been rejected. Must we wait for tragedies and scandals for those receiving care (or waiting to receive care) before meaningful action is taken?

Labour has tried to build trust with the electorate on the basis of a new social contract of equality and opportunity. The first demands that social care gets the funding it needs, so that it can become a fundamental part of the British economy and that it is there to support people when they need it most.

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