Sector Leaders Respond to Kings Speech
Legislation affecting health and social care feature in the plans Sir Keir Starmer’s new government has for the country, which were summarized by King Charles III during the state opening of parliament.
Figures revealing a massive shortage in the number of workers needed to provide social care are a wake-up call for action, campaigners have said.
Skills for Care revealed today that an extra 540,000 social care staff will be needed by 2040 to cope with rising demand, adding that sector was currently short of 131,000 staff with the 8.3% vacancy rate in social care three times the average for other sectors.
The Independent Care Group (ICG) said the stark shortage of social care workers was a wake-up call to the new government.
Shocking Figures
ICG Chair Mike Padgham said: “The figures, though shocking, are not a surprise and we have been warning for some years that social care was sleepwalking towards a care worker shortage that would severely damage our ability to provide care for a population that needs more and more.
“The difference is that we do have a new government that has a mandate and a clear majority, to do something about it.
“It is disappointing that there was no specific mention of social care reform in the King’s Speech, but we have to remain positive that reform will start soon.”
He backed Skills for Care’s workforce strategy, which calls on the Government to introduce strategic workforce planning for the sector and improve pay, terms and conditions for care workers.
“Care worker pay has to improve or we will never fill the 131,000 vacancies, let alone meet the extra 430,000 posts we will need by 2034 or 540,000 by 2040,” Mr Padgham added.
“As an urgent measure, ahead of any other reform they seek for social care, we need the Government to switch funding into social care from the NHS, so that we can recruit the people we need. That in turn will help the NHS because at the moment a lack of available social care support is exacerbating the expensive logjam in costly NHS care.”
Plans Commended
Emily Holzhausen CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Carers UK, said: “We welcome the introduction of the Employment Rights Bill and provisions for workers. There are just under 2.5 million unpaid carers in the country today who are juggling work and caring for an ill, elderly or disabled relative. A shocking 600 unpaid carers leave employment every day and these provisions will go some way to help unpaid carers remain in work and strengthen the Government’s economic growth agenda.
“We commend the planned provisions around flexible working and also want to see a swift review looking at the benefits of paid Carer’s Leave, paving the way for this to be included in the Employment Rights Bill. These combined measures would make a significant different to unpaid carers’ lives.
“We welcome the commitment in the King’s Speech to reduce NHS waiting times and fix the NHS. In the development of the Government’s 10-year plan for the NHS we must see robust and detailed measures to better support millions of unpaid carers who already act like a second NHS.
“We know that millions of unpaid carers are at breaking point, providing more care than ever before due to shortages in social care, long NHS waiting times, and an outdated benefit system which leaves carers in debt to the DWP. Unpaid carers save the economy £162 billion per year – the equivalent of a second NHS, yet many feel invisible and forgotten.
“It is disappointing that the commitment to build a National Care Service was not specifically mentioned in the King’s Speech alongside the important commitments on the NHS. We hope that the Government will bring forward its plans for how it intends to take this forward urgently, alongside ambitious plans for the development of a new National Carers Strategy.
“Unpaid care is tough and millions of carers are stretched both financially and emotionally. While focussing on the legislative programme for the coming Parliamentary session, we need to see the Government use secondary legislation to raise the earnings limit for Carer’s Allowance, to peg it to the National Living Wage. This would mean that unpaid carers would benefit from pay rises, rather than being penalised by them.
“We know that 71% of unpaid carers are worried about whether they can manage in the future, and 23% are in debt because of caring. As our population ages, it is vital that this Government prioritises the needs of millions of unpaid carers across the UK who already go above and beyond.”
Powerful Legislation
Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of NCF said: “There is some powerful legislation proposed within the King’s Speech that will support the development of the economic contribution of social care to communities and those working in care and support. We particularly welcome the Employment Rights Bill, alongside the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, that will enhance the rights of care workers and protect them from exploitative practices.
“The promise of fair pay for care workers has been a consistent pledge from the Labour Party, and there is much to welcome in relation to focussing on ensuring that those delivering this vital public service are offered the recognition and recompense commensurate with their role.
It will be vital that this fledgling legislation is followed up with a clear commitment to properly fund all increases in pay, for a longer-term focus on the broader package of support for the workforce, and to support the infrastructure needed to embed a new approach to pay negotiations that will support the over 1.5 million strong workforce and the establishment of a meaningful and rewarding career pathway.
“We also welcome the focus on investment in industry, skills and new tech, particularly the establishment of Skills England and the reform of the apprenticeship levy, as well as further devolved powers for local areas and combined authorities. The adult social care workforce should be at the centre of this given its size and economic potential, and the government must bring forward a workforce strategy for social care as part of this wider investment. The workforce strategy developed by Skills for Care, in collaboration with the social care, health and education sectors, is due for publication soon and sets out a series of actionable recommendations which we would urge the government to use as a springboard for its own plans.
“It is also encouraging to see modernisation of the Mental Health Act featured in the speech and specifically measures to ensure that people are not detained under the Mental Health Act solely due to a learning disability and/or autism.
“However, the King’s Speech was disappointingly devoid of any detail on how, and equally importantly, when wider reform of adult social care would come forward. The new government must act with urgency and purpose to begin the reform of the social care system now.
“We are keen to hear more solid plans and timescales around Labour’s development of a National Care Service as part of this reform and have made a direct approach to the new government to offer the combined support and expertise of the not-for-profit sector to help shape these ambitions.”
Major Reform
Nuffield Trust Deputy Director of Policy Natasha Curry said: “The measures on employment rights in today’s King’s Speech have potential to help attract more people to work in the social care sector. However, the government needs to press on with a major reform to social care so that those staff can support more people as part of a stable, thriving service.
“We very much welcome the idea of a fair pay agreement – action on pay is needed urgently to address high vacancies and high turnover, and retain the right skilled people. Our report tomorrow with the Health Foundation will lay out just how overdue strategic action is, and provide examples of ambitious policies. The lack of consistent sick pay in adult social care was a major issue during Covid, forcing staff who were unwell to lose out if they did the right thing and stayed at home. Our research called out this failing and addressing it will mean not only that workers are treated more decently, but also that we are better prepared for any future pandemic.
“Cracking down on exploitative contracts is right, given the poor working terms and conditions widespread in the sector. However, the hard reality is that adult social care has become reliant on zero hours contracts and some workers value the flexibility, and so there needs to be a careful, cautious, approach here that seeks to improve terms and conditions without suddenly destabilising the sector.
“A more strategic approach to building up skills alongside migration is a good idea – we have had years of wild swings in migration alongside consistently too few domestic workers. However, we can’t overlook the big issues that were not mentioned today. They don’t need Royal Commissions or laws, but they do need political courage and action. The financial state of councils is terrible and they have absolutely no certainty to plan this vital public service even into next year. Social care as a whole still has tight eligibility criteria that leave out many people who need support in a postcode lottery, and the costs fall on individuals without fairness or limitation. Fixing one hole in the boat won’t keep us afloat: we need comprehensive reform.”
Unlocking Growth
Sarah Woolnough, Chief Executive of The King’s Fund said: ‘A central theme of the new Labour government’s first legislative programme is unlocking economic growth, and a strong economy is inextricably linked with a healthy population, supported by a strong health and care sector.
‘Introducing landmark legislation to deliver a phased ban on the sale of tobacco products would be one of the most consequential and far-reaching decisions made by this Parliament, bringing about long-lasting benefits for the health of the nation. Smoking is the single largest cause of preventable deaths in England and also imposes significant costs on our economy and pressure on health and care services. The phased ban would save many thousands of lives and reduce health inequalities.
‘It is also encouraging to see the inclusion of other interventions to help keep children healthy, including reviving existing measures to restrict the advertising of junk food to children and ban them from buying high caffeine drinks. Our own polling shows that 65% of people support restrictions on junk food advertising compared to only 15% who oppose them.
‘We welcome the priority given to delivering long overdue reforms to the Mental Health Act. A society can be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable, and these carefully considered reforms will mean people who find themselves detained under the Act can have greater confidence that the restrictions they face are proportionate and applied with dignity and respect.
‘The planned Employment Rights Bill will contain measures to increase adult social care wages through nationally set ‘fair pay’ terms and conditions, plus the scrapping of exploitative zero hours contracts. There are approximately 152,000 vacancies in the social care sector and pay is undoubtedly a big factor in care providers’ ability to recruit and retain staff. The government’s plan to increase adult social care pay is good news for care workers, and we hope it will come with a commensurate rise in local government budgets to avoid the pay boost being funded by cuts elsewhere.
‘Whilst boosting the workforce would address one of the many issues facing social care, more fundamental reform of the sector is still needed. The social care system in England is not fit for purpose and previous and the new government now has the opportunity to decide that we will be a nation where people’s care needs are properly met. We hope to see more on their plans to reform adult social care soon.
‘Many of the other laws announced in today’s King’s Speech will also have an impact on people’s health. Improving the nation’s health depends on a wide range of measures in areas such as housing, the environment and employment. Cross government action will be needed to achieve Labour’s stated aim of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions in England.’
“Game Changing”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:“The King’s Speech has some game changing commitments that will improve the nation’s health – with reforms to the Mental Health Act and legislation to create a smokefree generation at the top of the list. NHS leaders will also welcome moves to transfer more power to local communities.
“Reforming the Mental Health Act is long overdue and is a vital step in helping to move more support for mental health, learning disability and autism patients into the community and reduce detentions. These are increasing every year and require expensive inpatient treatment. The reforms will also help reduce the unacceptable disparities in rates of detention for people from some ethnic minority backgrounds and improve recovery rates and outcomes.
“The commitment to reducing rates of smoking and to eventually phase out smoking is a key goal of local health and care leaders – they have been calling for smoke-free legislation since the 2022 Khan Review.
“Our members will also support the focus on children and young people, with measures to tackle the impact of junk food and high-caffeine energy drinks a welcome starting point.
“It’s also pleasing to see steps being taken to protect the NHS and other public services from future disruption caused by cyber attacks. Patient care should not be held to ransom by hackers, especially with health leaders and their teams working so hard to try to improve performance and tackle care backlogs.”
Kathryn Smith, Chief Executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) said: “Today was a recognition of the scale of the task at hand for the new government. Solving social care will not be an easy or quick mission, but positive steps forward were taken in acknowledging the imperative to succeed in realising this mission.
“The commitment to fair pay for care workers is a hugely positive step forward in recognising the vital role they play in supporting people in need and for stabilising the social care sector. Care staff must at last be seen for what they are, a pool of highly skilled professionals.
“A fair pay agreement will go a long way to tackling the urgent and longstanding workforce crisis, not least by creating greater pay parity with NHS equivalent staff. Pay is a crucial part of making people feel valued and recognised whilst giving them the assurance and security that there is a long-term career in care. But the agreement must be exactly what it says on the tin: fair. More details will be needed to clarify how the policy will be implemented, how it will be funded and who benefits.
“The commitment to modernise the Mental Health Act is long overdue and will bring the legislation into the 21st century. Putting more power in the hands of people and placing them at the centre of decisions about their care is vital. With the end in sight, we now need the government to co-produce the next steps with those who draw on care and support to ensure the ambition of improved treatment becomes a reality.
“We look forward to working with the government to help deliver on future plans for the social care sector.”
