Care providers call for ten-year plan for social care

Care providers are calling on Rishi Sunak to commit to a ten-year plan to tackle the adult social care crisis after years of ’empty promises’.

Care England has written to the chancellor urging him to make good on the government’s commitment to adult social care in his budget on Wednesday (March 3).

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: ‘The sector is tired of empty promises, White Papers and consultations, 13 of these in the last 17 years, that always end up in the long grass.

‘It is now or never; we need a 1948 moment with a commitment in the budget that the prime minister will tackle the social care crisis.

‘A ten-year plan akin to that of the NHS would be a great help to the sector, which in turn is part of the national infrastructure.

‘Adult social care needs to be placed at the forefront of future policy planning and cannot remain an addendum to the NHS. Care England wants to work with the government to ensure that this does not remain a pipedream.’

The National Care Forum (NCF) said investment in social care has the potential to transform the lives of individuals and the country as a whole.

Vic Rayner, chief executive of the NCF, said: ‘The pandemic has had a devastating impact on social care and shone a real spotlight on many of the issues it was already facing.

‘Care has long been marginalised and neglected as a central part of our economy. The pandemic has shown just how much social care matters. It matters to the millions of people who need it every day, to the 1.5m-strong workforce who provide it, to the 18,000 organisations providing it and to the country more widely.

‘The sector is under enormous pressure at the moment, however, it is patently clear that strategic and substantive investment in social care has the potential to transform the lives of individuals, the communities they are part of and the country as a whole.

‘How we think about care matters. Social care really does have the power to support our communities and transform lives.

‘Now is the time to act, we are ambitious for social care, and we need this budget to show just how ambitious the government and the country are for social care too.’

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