Nuffield Trust: What social care needs from the next government

The Nuffield Trust has published the second policy briefing in our general election series - What health and care need from the next government.

This briefing sets out a series of policy tests and criteria that the next government must meet to bring about long overdue comprehensive and meaningful reform of our beleaguered social care system.

For too long, this vital sector has suffered from insecure funding, high workforce turnover, heavy reliance on unpaid carers and catastrophic costs falling on people in need, this in turn, has left hundreds of thousands of people without the support they need.

The Nuffield Trust's tests for political parties on social care policy include:

• Overturning decades of piecemeal and limited reform with a clear plan for cohesive long-term reform that builds public support and grants social care parity with the NHS.
• Introduce a credible mechanism to fund social care sustainably through easily understood, established and fair taxation routes.
• Greater consistency and expanded access to publicly funded care should underpin a clear eligibility process.
• Ensuring choice and control and flexibility for people to design care and support around their needs and consider how personal budgets can be used effectively.
• Set out a long-term strategy for the full social care workforce that addresses issues of low pay, poor terms and conditions and greater training and development opportunities.
• Developing a stable and innovative provider market through a strong market developmental strategy that includes ensuring fair fees are paid to providers.
• Implementing a plan to support England's unpaid carers, who will remain a valuable part of any functional care system.

The general election briefings, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, will challenge the NHS and social care manifesto commitments of UK political parties ahead of the general election expected later this year.

We hope that these briefings and accompanying slide set will help to inform the public debate around NHS and social care issues that MPs, journalists, experts, and institutions will shape in the lead-up to and during the next general election. 

In the next few months, we will also publish our tests for manifesto commitments on primary care, timely access to care, and NHS finances.