Whitepaper outlines ‘high impact’ solutions to fix social care
In the wake of the Darzi report and with the Autumn Budget looming, care experts have produced a new whitepaper offering the government recommendations on how to reform the sector.
The social care sector is made up of individuals who devote their life to helping other people, so why isn’t it given the help and attention it so desperately needs?
A new whitepaper, titled ‘Ready to Care: The First Steps to Fixing Social Care’, was published this morning by home care specialist Birdie and it includes recommendations from 20 UK social care experts about how Labour can reform the sector.
The document outlines seven key proposals:
- Introduce new legislation to amend the 2022 Health and Care Act and mandate Director of Adult Social Care representatives are on all NHS IBC boards nationwide.
- NHS England to delegate healthcare tasks to trained care workers.
- Establish a national online support service for the five million unpaid carers.
- Reduce the hidden burden of travel time for home care workers.
- The Care Quality Commission (CQC) to undergo a rapid overhaul using digital tools.
- Mandate real-time data-sharing between hospitals and care providers by integrating social care software with the NHS Capacity Tracker.
- Seed a Teach First-style programme for social care leaders.
Overall, the whitepaper stresses the majority of strain on social care comes from the disconnect with the NHS. Birdie cited government statistics which show, that as of April 2024, there were 1.1million blocked beds in hospitals as 64% of medically fit patients were forced to wait for care.
To address this the whitepaper calls for integration, proposing a unified ‘village-of-care’ model – this would include legislation to ensure the Director of Adult Social care sits on NHS boards and to transfer acute and chronic conditions to community care.
Max Parmentier, CEO and co-founder of Birdie, said: ‘Social care is one of the most important pillars of our society and economy.
‘Although the sector has come a long way, we still face severe challenges, with over 400,000 people awaiting assessment to start being cared for and a significant funding gap to sustain the level of current care delivery in the community.
‘The Darzi report highlights the role of social care in transforming our health and care system. Every day, I meet social care leaders expressing their deep commitment to improving our system – they’re ready to help.
‘This white paper reflects their dedication, shaped by extensive input from sector leaders, and presents a range of low-cost, high-impact reforms that the new government can implement before the end of the year.
‘We hope these recommendations will drive meaningful progress and result in visible changes in the autumn budget alongside Darzi report recommendations so we can ensure ongoing sector progress in the NHS and in social care.’
Rachael Crook, CEO and co-founder of Lifted, added: ‘In social care, we are used to solving problems. The social care leaders we interviewed are committed, resilient and passionate about supporting carers and families across the country. And yet, we know we must do more with less.
‘We have brought together the best of the sector to present innovative, practical, low-cost solutions that can be implemented by the Labour government now. They have already indicated they are open to change and are prioritising this sector to establish a care system we can all be proud of.’
Both Max and Rachael co-authored the whitepaper, which can be downloaded in full here, and it was supported by signatures from Martin Jones, CEO of Home Instead and Darren Stapelberg, CEO of Grosvenor Health & Social Care, the second largest independent provider of domiciliary care in the UK.
Image: James Newcombe
