Training and Upskilling Funding: Another Scrapped Policy

By Jo Henney, CEO at Nugent (https://wearenugent.org)

Training & Upskilling: Yet another policy scrapped by Labour causing over 30 leaders in the care sector sending a joint open letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting raising concern with the new government’s decision to scrap funding set aside for training and upskilling social care workers. What will be the impact on social care recruitment and retention in the near and distant future?

I share my peers’ concerns over the scrapping of funds to train and upskill social care workers.

I’m proud to be part of the social care workforce – we are fiercely resilient and have overcome impossible hurdles in recent years, such as the pandemic, ongoing staffing shortages and the increased complexity of care needs, but if those in power keep pushing and expecting us to achieve the impossible with minimal support, we will break.

Social care is the backbone of society, providing essential support from the beginning to the end of life for millions of individuals every day while being undervalued and underfunded by those it relies on.

In his statement, Stephen Kinnock said that the government would maintain last year’s budget for adult social care learning and development; however, that funding wasn’t enough then and it isn’t enough now – we need to be moving forward, not sitting in the past.

Funding is more than just a financial resource, it is a lifeline that enables us to equip our workforce with the skills and knowledge needed to provide compassionate, competent, and safe care for the millions who need it.

While I understand that the current government is dealing with shortfalls inherited from previous regimes and they shouldn’t be blamed for trying to put out someone else’s fire, this decision is short-sighted, leaving those of us in the industry feeling stranded, especially without a clear Plan B in sight.

Without a concrete strategy and clear funding solutions, the quality of care across the UK will decline, the risk of burnout among care workers will increase, and in years to come, we may not have a functioning care system at all.

At Nugent, we’ve seen firsthand how investing in our staff leads to better outcomes for the people we support; I believe that the cost of maintaining a skilled social care workforce pales in comparison to the long-term costs of allowing our social care system to deteriorate.

I remain hopeful that the Government does have a plan in its back pocket, but in the meantime, they are leaving a crippled sector feeling abandoned.