Social care policy
opportunity, and building an NHS fit for the future.
We therefore welcomed Wes Streeting’s statement on 9 July that he has asked the Department of Health and Social Care to expand its focus on boosting economic growth and harnessing the role of social care as well as the NHS as engines of economic growth, by providing training and job opportunities to local people across the country.
Make social care central to policy making It is only by making social care central to policy making across government that we will start to see change. Core government policies around employment rights and huge house building targets are an example in point. As we said earlier, the government must ensure a strong social care employer voice on Skills England. This is essential given we already have 131,000 vacancies with a further prediction of the requirement for 440,000 more care workers by 2035, which makes it even more essential to act now to grow our domestic care and health workforce and reduce our reliance on international colleagues. When it comes to housebuilding ambitions, the current national planning policy framework consultation3
is deafeningly
silent on requirements to ensure more age appropriate/older people’s housing, and yet this is another key cross cutting policy area which needs social care and support expertise.
Therefore, it is disappointing, at the time of writing this article (beginning of September 2024) that the only two announcements we have had in relation to social care have been to cancel some of the previous government’s commitments,
namely funding and support for charging reform and the Adult Social Care Training and Development Fund. This reversal around charging reform is particularly disheartening, following a recent report by the Care and Support Alliance4
which highlighted the severe
inequities faced by those seeking care and support. The £1bn in savings represents not just a fiscal number but tens of thousands of people who will struggle to afford their care. The Written Ministerial Statement cutting the Adult Social Care Training and Development Fund5
said that the country’s
finances were in such a parlous state that they had to cancel the planned funding previously pledged – but never delivered – by the previous government. Perhaps one ray of hope is a promise to continue to support the Care Workforce Pathway (the new national career structure) for adult social care and associated training/ qualification but, of course, there is no clarity on what that means, funding-wise.
Improve the pay, terms, and conditions of the social care workforce This government has been quick to resolve trade disputes and accept pay review recommendations for the public sector. We now need the same energy and commitment to be given to improving the pay terms and conditions of the social care workforce.
The minister said on 30 July: “We are
committed in our support for the Adult Social Care Workforce. Our long-term plans will include a new deal for care workers through a Fair Pay Agreement. We will also take steps to create a National Care Service underpinned by national standards, with the aim of delivering consistency of care across the country.” The time for action is now. The Social Care Workforce strategy, co-ordinated by Skills for Care and developed with wide sector stakeholder input, recommends that the government should lead joined- up, consistent action on pay with local government, unions, and employers over several years, which offers improved pay and quality of role for people working in social care. This could start with improving base pay for care workers (for example, through a pay award body like the NHS) and a fair pay agreement for adult social care. It recommends it should include incentives for people to develop their skills and roles by using pay differentials and a focus on better terms and conditions. This must be
26
fully funded via local or central government funding models.
In an interesting report6 , the Nuffield
Trust and the Health Foundation offer five options: n Introduce one-off or recurrent bonus payments for care workers.
n A sector-specific minimum wage for care workers, set above the National Living Wage (NLW) to offer a premium over other low-paid sectors.
n A national sector pay scale for care workers, setting out pay bands and criteria for different roles in the sector, linking pay and progression in social care.
n Introducing new and stronger measures to tackle underpayment of legal minimum wages in the care sector
n Uplifts to economy-wide, statutory minimum wages – this is essence is already happening with annual increase to the NLW but as noted below, is not funded
Invest in people, not profit As the voice of the not-for-profit sector, here at the National Care Forum, we believe in people, not profit, and so we urge the government to begin now to develop a clear strategy, with specific measures to enable the growth of not-for-profit care provision. This should include a 10-year plan to expand the proportion of care and support provided by not-for-profit organisations and the development of pathways to enable existing care organisations to adopt a not-for-profit care model. Not-for-profit care provision ensures that all the funding from either
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com October 2024
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