Prime Minister Urged “ Show More Love For Social Care” In Upcoming Budget
The National Care Association (NCA) has sent Prime Minister Rishi Sunak it’s “very own love letter”, highlighting the plight of the social care sector and calling for review of the Treasury allocation for Social Care and Support services, focused on asking why Local Authorities and Health commissioners are not appropriately funded to support proportionate fee 24/25 budget uplifts to all providers.
The letter highlights the chronic underfunding of social care, and facing with increased expectations year on year to support people with complex health care needs and provide essential partnership to our NHS colleagues, often, the letter points out, people discharged into care will have conditions which require additional skills training for our staff, but without additional funding to recognise their knowledge or experience or indeed the value of the work they do.
The Letter emphasizes the “reality and implications of the human cost this chronic under investment has on thousands of lifesaving services that we provide”:
- We have over 152000 staff vacancies in the sector and will need an additional 500,000 by the 2030’s.
- Inflationary costs impact care providers as they do all citizens which include energy, food prices, interest rates etc.
- Social Care supports people with complex health care needs who would have been supported in the NHS 15 years ago.
In January this year the government set aside an additional £250 million to speed up hospital discharges. In a statement the government announced that thousands of extra medically fit patients were to be discharged from hospitals into community care settings, such as care homes to free up hospital beds and reduce pressure on the NHS.
Nadra Ahmed, executive co-chair of National Care Association, said: “Our members are based throughout the country and are passionate and committed to ensuring the highest quality of services through respect, recognition and support for the people they support. Unfortunately, the ability to act in this way has been eroded beyond a sustainable position as we enter another financial year and to meet the circa £12 – £14 billion shortfall identified by independent analysts of the sector. We call on the prime minister today to prioritise social care and value our sector for the £50+ billion contribution to the public purse.
