Labour’s recent ‘big announcement’ on social care is the setting up of an independent commission (lead by Dame Louise Casey) which will produce an interim report in 2026 and a final report in 2028. While seeking cross-party support is welcome, it is not clear if recommendations will be binding on anyone and 2028 may be an election year. There have been endless commissions and reports over decades: we already understand the problems and now we need urgent solutions. This commission sounds depressingly like the noise of a can being kicked down the road making it unlikely that the final report is going to deliver the radical reform that is so much needed.
While almost everyone agrees that social care is in crisis, successive governments have failed to grasp the issue, partly because of political infighting. Too few services are being offered by councils who have been starved of funding for years. More than 60,000 disabled adults with long-term illnesses in England were pursued for debt last year because they could not afford to pay for their home social care support. One hospital has the equivalent of four wards full of people unable to be discharged because of having to wait for social care input, while nationally, around 13% of beds are occupied for the same reason. This is having an immense impact on NHS performance and yet not factored in to current initiatives designed to reduce waiting lists. Meanwhile privatised care homes are in financial crisis with devastating consequences for elderly residents.
Through this catalogue of failure, older people, younger disabled people and children suffer, with inadequate or no services at all. Paid carers do their best with poor pay and rotten conditions while unpaid carers shoulder huge burdens with little if any meaningful support.
End Social Care Disgrace is a non-party political coalition of older people and disabled people’s organisations, carers, care support workers, health campaigns, academics, trade unionists and others. We want the Government to establish a new National Care, Support and Independent Living Service (NaCSILS) which is:
◼︎ free at the point of use
◼︎ publicly funded, publicly provided (not for profit) and publicly accountable
◼︎ nationally mandated but designed and delivered locally
◼︎ radically re-imagined and co-produced with service users, carers, workers and local communities; offering choice, control, dignity and independence
◼︎ underpinned by staff whose pay and conditions reflect their high value and skills
◼︎ providing comprehensive and flexible support to carers
◼︎ informed by a task force on independent living led by user controlled groups from diverse backgrounds
The economic argument for this is clear.
It is to be hoped that Labour’s new deal for working people will improve pay and conditions for paid carers and help fill the gaps in workrforce. Some extra money has been put into councils for social care, although not near enough to what is needed. Labour is suggesting that care workers could perform health checks in order to reduce hospital waiting lists. It is not clear where the funding or training will come from or just how much of an impact this could have. A more joined up IT system, linking health and social care, is being promised but again with little detail including on funding.
These are small, positive, but wholly inadequate steps. End Social Care Disgrace would like to see Louise Casey:
◼︎forget the year-long analysis of problems and grasp the urgency by focusing on solutions in her report scheduled for 2026
◼︎make clear moves toward social care free at the point of use, publicly funded by progressive taxation, with the private sector removed and with Independent Living as a core value
◼︎elaborate a clear and supportive deal for unpaid carers
◼︎ensure disabled people form an integral part of the commission
No more procrastination – the country needs to see social care receive rapid, thoughtful, radical change. There are no more excuses for inaction – 2028 is far too late!
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