Interconnection Between Funding & Workforce

June 8, 2020 News

Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care, has submitted written evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, says:
“Sad though it is to receive recognition through disaster, the coronavirus pandemic has brought to light the essential role of adult social care. Moving beyond lockdown, we need to craft a new approach, one that ensures that vulnerable people are not abandoned by the NHS. We need a system of support in which health and social care act in a coordinated fashion focused around the person and are financed adequately and appropriately”.

The Health and Social Care Select Committee’s latest inquiry focuses on funding and workforce, two of the most important pillars of the adult social care sector. It explores:

What level of funding is required in each of the next five years to address this?
What is the extent of current workforce shortages in social care, how will they change over the next five years, and how do they need to be addressed?
What further reforms are needed to the social care funding system in the long term?

https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/health-and-social-care-committee/news/social-care-funding-and-workforce-inquiry-re-opened-19-21/

Martin Green continues:
“A decreasing funding pot has hampered providers’ efforts to recruit and retain staff. This has manifest in a number of ways, spanning the overall financial attractiveness of the adult social care sector as an entity in itself, but also providers ability to compete with other sectors. The adult social care workforce needs to be seen for what it is, an exciting, challenging, professional career and we have to ensure that staff are remunerated accordingly”.