How can English social care address workforce challenges? Lords committee to investigate

Is the resilience of the social care system a result of fewer people receiving social care? What is the case for a national care service along the lines of the NHS? How can the high vacancy and turnover rates in social care be reduced?

These are among the questions the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee will be asking a panel of witnesses later today.

At 3.35pm the Committee will question:

• Sharon Allen OBE, CEO, Skills for Care
• Guy Collis, Policy Officer, UNISON
• Professor Jill Manthorpe, Director, NIHR Social Care Workforce Research Unit.

These witnesses are giving evidence to the Committee’s inquiry into the funding of social care in England. 

Other questions likely to be covered in this session are:

• What could the consequences be for social care provision if local government moves towards greater self-sufficiency?
• Are there regional differences in the quality and availability of social care?
• To what extent are local authority commissioning practices affecting the provision of care?
• Is the Migration Advisory Committee’s recent report right to say that an easier route for migrants into social care would not assist with recruitment problems?

This evidence session, which is open to the public, will start at 3.35pm on Tuesday 8 January 2019 in Committee Room 1 of the House of Lords.