Committee Chair has issued the following
comment in response to the Government’s White Paper, People at
the Heart of Care: adult social care reform, published
today.
Health and Social Care Committee Chair Rt Hon MP said:
“This is a disappointment given the extent of the crisis in
social care and the predicament of people whose quality of life
is dependent on a solution being found.
“Providing an additional £1.7 billion in funding over three years
falls far short of the annual £7 billion sum that our evidence
found would be necessary to fix social care. The White
Paper states that it provides an ‘ambitious ten-year vision’, but
it doesn’t acknowledge the scale of extra resource needed to
realise that vision, based on the crisis the sector faces right
now.
“The Government deserves credit for grasping the nettle of social
care reform, and no-one can argue with the laudable aims of
providing choice, quality and fair access. However, these
plans represent three steps forward and two steps back. Though
there is progress with a cap on care costs, it could have gone
further. Failures in social care will continue to put pressure on
our overstretched hospitals with patients who cannot be safely
discharged exacerbating the winter crisis and thousands of people
will not get the care they need because the carers do not exist.
“The social care sector needs to recruit and retain the right
number of staff, with the right skills, with support and
recognition. While the workforce strategy in the White Paper
clearly takes this into account, it does not go far enough.
Social care needs its own People Plan, and a detailed ten-year
strategy setting how these ambitions will be achieved.
“While the White Paper recognises the crucial role played by
unpaid carers, it seems it will be some time before they can
expect to see a change in the services provided to them to meet
the challenges they face.”
