Charities have criticised an announcement that funding promised for the social care workforce in England is to be halved, with one calling the move “an insult”.
In a white paper on adult social care reform published in December 2021, ministers pledged to invest “at least £500m over the next three years to begin to transform the way we support the social care workforce”.
However, the Department of Health and Social Care said on Tuesday that plans for a “new care workforce pathway” as well as “hundreds of thousands of training places” will be backed by £250m in funding.
Sally Warren, director of policy at health thinktank The King’s Fund, said the plans were a “dim shadow of the widescale reform to adult social care that this government came into office promising”.
“Demand for social care is at a record high, levels of public dissatisfaction have slumped to a new low and staff vacancies have never been higher,” she said. “These revised steps towards ‘reform’ will do little to radically change the system and, at best, are the bare minimum needed to stop it from collapsing.”
Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK, said it was disappointing that the plans are not expected to include an immediate pay rise for care staff.
“You just can’t provide really good care, tailored to people’s individual needs and aspirations, if you haven’t got the staff to do it,” she said.
Jackie O’Sullivan, of learning disability charity Mencap, said: “This plan is an insult to a sector that was once treated as a priority for government.
“Just over a year ago, the Social Care White Paper laid out the urgent reform needed to enable people to access the care and support they rely on. It has now been diluted beyond recognition.
“Faced with a deficit of 165,000 care workers, the government has chosen to cut its plans to recognise and support this workforce. Without this workforce, nothing else is possible: no increase in quality of care can be achieved; no innovative ideas can be realised; and people with a learning disability who rely on social care will suffer.
“The government needs to act fast on the real issues like workforce pay, timely access to support and the underfunding of the system, before it’s too late.”
A report published in March by trade organisation Care England and learning disability charity HFT described the adult social care sector as “on the precipice” because of financial pressures on providers.
Of the providers surveyed, 42% said they had had to close down part of their organisation or hand contracts back to local authorities to cut costs, while 35% said they were offering care to fewer people.
The report also said that “low levels of pay for care staff is considered to be the biggest barrier to recruitment and retention”.
Skills For Care, which works with the government to provide data on adult social care, estimates that in 2021/22 the staff turnover rate in the sector was 29%.
The 2021 white paper also promised at least £150m in investment in digitisation across the sector. The department has now said that figure will be £100m, and that £50m had already been spent.
The latest announcement did not mention £25m previously promised to support unpaid carers or £300m pledged to improve the supply of supported housing.
The social care minister, Helen Whately, said the package announced on Tuesday “focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves”.
“Care depends completely on the people who do the caring – that’s over a million care staff working in care homes and agencies, and countless relatives, friends and volunteers, acting out of the kindness of their hearts,” she said.
She added that the package was focused on the “better use of technology, the power of data and digital care records and extra funding for councils – aiming to make a care system we can be proud of”.