Campaigner To Meet Minister Over Care

A leading social care campaigner will meet a top Government minister this week to discuss the crisis facing the care of older, vulnerable and disabled adults.

Mike Padgham, chair of the provider organisation, The Independent Care Group (ICG) will meet Social Care Minister Stephen Kinnock in Westminster.

He will urge the minister to work with the social care sector to find solutions to ongoing problems.

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

Mr Padgham will set 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 said:
“I am grateful to the Minister for taking the time to see me this week, after I wrote to him seeking a meeting.

“It will be an opportunity to discuss the challenges currently facing the sector and, more importantly, look at what we can do together to address them.

“As a priority, I am keen to improve lines of communication between the Government and the social care sector.

“Providers have many years of experience and expertise which we are happy to put at the Government’s disposal as we all seek ways to tackle the lack of care and the problems facing the sector.”

The ICG is concerned after Age UK reported that the number of people living without the social care they need has jumped to 2m – up from 1.6m last year.

There are reports from up and down the country of care provision being withdrawn due to financial cutbacks.

Mr Padgham said the Government “had made positive noises” about reforming social care.

“We are very keen to work with the Government to bring about the changes that they have agreed need carrying out to ensure we have a social care sector that meets current and future needs,” he added.