18/06/2024 Social Care Investment: A Message to the Next Government
The General Election will take place on 4th July, and whoever forms the next government will face the challenge of overhauling the UK’s social care system.
In the second of three articles, Melanie Weatherley MBE, Chair of the Lincolnshire Care Association, highlights the need for investment in the social care sector.
The past five years have undoubtedly been a challenge for everyone in the UK. First there was Brexit, then we had a global pandemic, then the war in Ukraine, all of which was compounded by a mini-Budget which caused financial turmoil and worsened the cost of living crisis.
However, I would argue that the social care sector has been impacted more than most, as care providers have had to deal with local authority funding challenges as well as high interest rates and soaring inflation at levels not seen for many years.
Throughout all this economic hardship and uncertainty, care providers in this country have managed to continue to provide quality services to their service users, which speaks volumes for their resilience and their dedication to the people they care for.
But the financial squeeze on care providers has been intense. Those providers that are dependent on local authority and NHS-funded service users – in other words, the providers that care for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable people in society – have had to spend almost all their revenue on covering day-to-day running costs. There’s means there’s little or no money left in the pot for innovation or improvement.
Low wages
Increased investment in the social care sector will allow us to address once and for all the scourge of low wages. Care staff are paid in line with the assumptions used by commissioners when setting fees, which means their pay is normally at or just above the National Living Wage. Carers are wonderful people who are totally committed to their service users, and they do a fantastic job, but increasingly they are leaving the care sector because they simply cannot afford to stay.
The time is long overdue for paying our carers a wage which reflects the difficulty of their job and the responsibilities they take on; we must finally recognise the professionalism of our care workers and reward them with significant increases in their pay. However, these increases have to be funded by central government, because the current tight margins do not allow care providers to significantly invest in wages. With increased investment in wages and training, social care staff could do even more to support the NHS and help the next government to achieve what will undoubtedly be one of its primary goals – to reduce the waiting lists and bed blocking that are currently blighting our health system.
Going digital
Care workers’ pay is not the only area that is crying out for more investment. In the care sector, as in many other areas, there are exciting opportunities to improve quality and productivity by embracing and harnessing digital technology, but again this requires significant strategic investment from the centre.
It must be said that there is already some help available for digitisation: NHS England has offered care providers a 50% grant towards introducing digital care records, for example. But once again the tight margins and the increased costs are hampering progress in this area: those care providers that work mostly with local authority funded customers cannot afford the other 50% as their fee income is too low. Care providers supporting self–funding may be able to increase fees, but is this fair?
It is instructive to note that GP practices (which are also private, independent businesses like care providers) received full funding for the transition to digital working. Why should the same support not be extended to care providers?
A combination of cuts to public services and economic turbulence have combined to put the social care sector in this country under immense pressure. But it isn’t an insoluble problem. Real, tangible investment in staff and technology will improve the lives of many older and vulnerable people; it will transform the social care workforce by attracting and retaining the best workers; and it will relieve the pressure on the NHS which relies on a functioning care sector to operate smoothly.
I would like to urge the next occupant of 10 Downing Street to put investment in social care at the top of their inbox when the dust has settled after the General Election on 4th July.