Reform is Essential – an opinion from Care England

Health and Social Care

Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care, has welcomed the Public Accounts Select Committee’s report on Adult Social Care Markets.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, says: 

“This hard hitting report makes it absolutely crystal clear that reform is not only necessary but essential. We hope that the Government will adhere to the excellent recommendations and ensure that social care gets the attention it deserves, it is not just a case of money but system review.  Social care is linked intrinsically with the NHS and it is therefore futile focusing on one and not the other”.

The recommendations include calls for a new long term funding plan, to allow local authorities and providers to innovate and improve services. Secondly, it stresses how the care workforce deserves better treatment, which the PAC believes could be partially remedied by the Department finally stepping up and producing a workforce strategy that tackles low pay, supports career development and aligns care with the NHS. Care England is willing and able to, alongside its members, support the development of these plans in the coming months and years.

The Public Accounts Committee’s report alludes to how Care England’s submission stressed, amongst other things, how:

  • Care England said many of the fee rates proposed by local authorities for 2021–22 do not reflect the increased care cost per head caused by lower occupancy. It feared the extra unringfenced funding will not help the frontline and that other council budgets will subsume it.
  • Provider organisations such as Care England called for extra funding to allow for parity of pay and conditions with the NHS, and more widespread professionalisation and training opportunities for the
    workforce.
  • Care England told the Committee that local authority websites were extremely difficult to navigate, especially when it comes to identifying yearly fee rates.

The full report can be found at https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/127/public-accounts-committee/

Martin Green continues:

“Care England has long called for an occupancy guarantee as well as measures to reward and professionalise the workforce, these recommendations, if enacted, will be enormously helpful”.