‘No more cuts to social care,’ ICG plea to Chancellor

The Independent Care Group has sent an impassioned plea to the Chancellor not to impose any further financial hardship on the care of older, vulnerable and disabled adults.

The ICG has sent an open letter to Rachel Reeves urging her to support rather than harm social care when she presents her Autumn Statement.

Their plea comes amidst fears that the Government will not boost funding to local authorities for care but will increase employer National Insurance contributions, both of which would hit social care hard.

“It isn’t too late,” said ICG Chair Mike Padgham. “The Chancellor must pull away from measures that will harm the care of the most vulnerable and support the social care sector instead.

“The number of people living without the care they need has topped 2m for the first time but if the Chancellor doesn’t support us at the end of the month, things will get even worse.”

In his letter to the Chancellor, Mr Padgham says the Government needs to increase rather than decrease the funding it gives to commissioners like local authorities to buy care from providers. And he warns that an increase in National Insurance would hit social care providers and be at odds with the Government’s desire to see more people looked after in their own home. He also argues that the Government must support social care if it is to succeed in its proposals to reform and improve the NHS.

In the letter he says:

“In particular, an increase in National Insurance payments for employers would hit social care providers particularly hard. Two thirds of our costs are on staffing and the sector is already under-staffed and struggling to recruit, with 131,000 vacancies in the sector. Adding another cost to employers would bring further pressure and might put some providers out of business. It would also be at odds with the Government’s desire to have more people looked after in their own homes. An increase in National Insurance would be particularly harsh on domiciliary care, which is very staff intensive.”

And he adds: “We cannot start to ease hospital waiting lists and empty hospital beds if there is no social care to look after people in the community. We have to tackle the 2m people who currently cannot get care and the 131,000 vacancies in the sector, not to mention the lengthening list of care home closures.”

Mr Padgham says there are sound economic as well as social and moral arguments for supporting social care.

He adds in the letter: “The latest Skills for Care report revealed that social care now contributes £68.1bn to the England economy and employs 1.7m. That is a significant contribution, but it could contribute and employ considerably more if resources were switched from the NHS to support the sector. Skills for Care says an extra £6.1bn invested in social care would provide economic benefits of £10.7bn – for every £1 invested, a return of £1.75. Moving money from the NHS into social care would significantly save money for the NHS by keeping people out of costly hospital beds.

“We will need an extra 540,000 care staff to cope with rising demand, by 2040. We will not be able to recruit those people and meet that demand if we cannot pay our staff properly. To do that we need social care commissioners to pay providers a fair price for the care they provide. Continuing cuts to local authority budgets have prevented them from paying a fair price for care in recent years, reducing the amount of care available and creating care deserts – areas where it is virtually impossible to get local authority-funded care.”

Act now on care staff vacancies, ICG urges Govt

THE Government must act quickly to help fill vacancies in the social care workforce to avoid thousands more people going without the care they need, The ICG warned today.

The ICG has called on the Government to give social care staff parity of pay with their NHS counterparts and to urgently bring forward its promised care workforce plan to help recruit staff.

The call comes after a new report warned that social care continues to face problems in recruiting and retaining staff.

Skills for Care says the past year saw a growth in the social care workforce to 1.71m people and the number of vacancies fell to 131,000 – mainly due to a rise in international recruits during 2023-24.

But the State of the Adult Social Care Sector and Workforce in England report warns that since April the number of international recruits has begun to fall and that British staff recruitment is falling too

ICG Chair Mike Padgham said: “On the face of it there is much to feel positive about in this latest Skills for Care report as the workforce is growing, vacancies are falling and staff turnover is falling too.

“But I fear the report might give a slightly misleading impression and some more recent data in the report and underlying trends do give us great cause for concern, particularly when it comes to future recruitment.

“The previous Government discouraged overseas recruitment by banning care workers from bringing over dependents, so overseas recruitment is, as the latest statistics show, starting to fall back dramatically – Skills for Care says by two thirds for the first quarter of this financial year. Some overseas staff, who came on three-years visas, may soon be going back.

“And since March 2022 the number of British workers has fallen by 70,000. With overseas and British recruitment falling the result can only be one thing – a future shortage of care workers to meet demand.

“Only last month, Age UK reported that the number of people living without the care they need had topped 2m for the first time. And we know that such demand is going to rise and rise – estimates suggest we’ll need an extra 540,000 care workers by 2040.

“Given what Skills for Care reports today – where are these extra recruits going to come from?”

He says the Government has to bring forward its care workforce plan and with it a way to pay the social care workforce on a par with the NHS so that providers can recruit British staff to fill vacancies and start meeting unmet demand.

“We need to rethink the whole social care workforce proposition and see the sector as an economic driver for the country,” Mr Padgham added. “Today’s report from Skills for Care reveals that 1.7m people work in the sector and that social care contributes £68.1bn to the England economy. With the right investment, the sector could contribute even more, start to meet unmet demand and get in shape for the extra demand that is heading our way.

“Without that preparation, we will see a dire shortage of care workers and the number of people going without care rise well above that 2m.”

'Work with us to solve care crisis', ICG Chair urges minister

ICG Chair Mike Padgham urged Social Care Minister Stephen Kinnock to work with providers to tackle the ongoing crisis in social care when they met yesterday. 

Mr Padgham met Mr Kinnock in Westminster for “constructive” talks and came away optimistic.

“I was encouraged that the minister listened and very clearly knew that social care is facing some very serious challenges and that something needs to be done,” he said.

“I believe there is an intent for improvement, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating and time will tell.”

The pair discussed improving care staff pay, reforming social care commissioning so that a fairer price is paid for care and reforming the Care Quality Commission so that duplication of inspection was avoided.They also discussed how the Government should work with social care providers to tackle issues facing the sector.

“I said the Government needs to embrace the knowledge and expertise that is available in the sector, as we all understand that it cannot solve all the problems itself,” Mr Padgham added.

“I began by inviting the minister up to North Yorkshire to see first-hand some of the challenges that face care providers on a day-to-day basis.

“I also acknowledged that the social care sector has to get its own act together, not least by addressing the number of representative bodies we have and ensuring we speak with one, coherent and consistent voice.

“I also stressed to him how important it was that social care had a voice on the Integrated Care Boards so that providers and commissioners work together to deliver care.”

Mr Padgham pointed out that social care contributes £55.7bn to the England economy and employs more than 1.6m people.

“The sector could contribute and employ considerably more if resources were switched from the NHS to support social care,” Mr Padgham added. “Skills for Care research suggested an extra £6.1bn invested in social care would provide economic benefits of £10.7bn – for every £1 invested, a return of £1.75.”

The meeting came amidst concerns after the number of people living without the care they need topped 2m for the first time.

Mr Padgham presented the minister with a document setting out three urgent reforms needed to tackle the crisis in adult social care.

These include switching resources from the NHS into social care to address a chronic lack of available care, reforming pay and conditions for the social care workforce to tackle a 131,000 shortage and reforming social care commissioning to make it fairer for providers.

Mr Padgham shared with the Minister a copy of the document Building Capacity and Partnership in Care, published by the Labour Government in 2001. In it, then Health Secretary Alan Milburn spoke of creating a partnership betweek government, providers and commissioners to create “excellent services that promote independence, self-esteem and social inclusion”.

“I said the Government would do well to revisit the Building Capacity document, as it offered so many sensible actions, but sadly too few were ever introduced,” Mr Padgham added.

Prior to the General Election, Mr Padgham endorsed the Labour candidate for Scarborough and Whitby, Alison Hume, who went on to win the seat at the July poll. She publicly backed calls for social care reform and the introduction of a National Care Service.

The ICG is campaigning for full-scale reform to social care.

It has published its Five Pillars of Social Care Reform document, which proposes ring-fencing a percentage of GDP for care, creating a National Care Service, setting a minimum carer wage, establishing a task force for reform and creating fair tariffs for services such as care beds and homecare visits.

The ICG argues that shifting funding from the NHS to social care would eventually save money by providing more preventative care in our local communities and keeping people out of hospital, helping to cut waiting lists.

picture shows Mr Padgham, left, with Social Care Minister, Stephen Kinnock, right.