Julia Warrener, Interim Dean of Health and Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire, reflects on the government’s latest idea to create a new care taskforce, claiming they already had a catalogue of past enquires and commissions to build from.
I, like many of you perhaps, have experienced frequent bouts of déjà vu since the Social Care Commission was announced on the 3rd of January, 2025. I’ve since wondered whether it’s me, perhaps I’ve ‘been around too long’… because I am sure, I’ve heard similar announcements before. Of course I have, many times, not least when the Dilnot Commission was established in the early months of the coalition government. It’s distressing to realise we are indeed no further forward in solving the social care crisis from July 2010. The care system needs action now. Action to build on all the previous announcements and reviews. Action focused on ensuring appropriate structures, resourcing, staffing and perhaps most importantly, action to value those who need and deliver social care so much more.
Political consensus is vital, certainly if we are to avoid the partizan pitfalls associated with the so called ‘death tax’ of 2009 and the ‘dementia tax’ of 2017, not to mention every commission (government or independent), white paper and parliamentary committee enquiry since 1997. For a government of self-defined pragmatists, the gap between the Casey Commission’s announcement, planned report and recommendations is just not practical. Nor is it justifiable.
If the reform and most importantly, the efficacy of social care for all those involved – both for those in need and for those working in the system – is truly a matter of national importance, then delivery is needed now, not in 2028. After all, we are not at base camp. We have a wealth of previous ideas and positions to build on, Dilnot included.
As a former social worker, now academic and educator in social policy, I can remember my energy for Dilnot’s key recommendations, which incidentally enjoyed considerable cross-party support. I was able to suggest to our, then, undergraduate and postgraduate health and social care students that seemingly fair and equitable solutions were on the horizon; through the cap on the amount a single person would pay in a lifetime and an improved means test so that more people got state supported care.
However, my energy has been replaced with lethargy and worse, especially as I have been forced to work in a holding pattern with students ever since, being obliged to say regularly since publication ‘and of course we wait for implementation of Dilnot’s recommendations’. Though chancellor Rachel Reeves’ previous decision to cut winter fuel payments shows these changes are unaffordable. Lethargy morphs into absolute vexation. I had thought this was a matter of national importance. How do we at Herts adequately prepare over three hundred social work students, across our BSc and MSc Social Work programmes, for their future careers in social care with so much uncertainty surrounding its very existence?

Image: Social work students at the University of Hertfordshire.
Funding structures, balancing state, family and individual contributions to care services, in both community and residential settings must be supplied. Local authorities are key to the delivery of effective social and health care, and yet are significantly underfunded amid enduring rising costs and increasingly more complex demand.
As principal carer for my mother, who lived at home, independently until the age of 98, I have witnessed the impact of significant gaps between her council’s power to spend and demand on their services. Consequently, communities face a doubling down; cuts in services and increasing council tax.
My mother was fortunate, she had me as a former social worker, as her daughter and we personally funded her care. I saw first-hand therefore how valuable regular and consistent care can be. Her four care calls per day, from people she knew, enabled her to remain at home for as long as possible. However with 131,000 current vacancies in the sector, this does not always allow for reliable and consistent services.
To care for someone, personally and practically, as family member or care worker, is a highly skilled undertaking, requiring deft interpersonal and communication skills, sensitivity, not to mention physical and emotional resilience. Caring is rewarding and sustains us, personally and socially. I still remember many of those people I supported in the past and of course, working alongside my mother’s carers, to support her in her own home, stands as one of my most valuable contributions. However, caring is often seen as something ‘anyone can do’. Not only is this not the case, in my opinion, it undervalues and depreciates our existing highly skilled social care workforce. It also acts to disincentivise people for a career in social care. Government plans to legislate for fair social care pay will help certainly, but we also need a broader social and cultural settlement focused on the specialised and highly valued knowledge and skills of all social care workers and professionals. Economic and cultural value will help ensure people are inspired to start a career in social care for personal, professional, and economic reward.
This situation has been too urgent for too long. All those that need, use or work within the sector know unanimously that it is not working as it could. We cannot start over, we must build from the catalogue of past enquiries, commissions and White Papers, identify structures to balance fair contributions, resource local authorities appropriately and most importantly value caring and those who are cared for. We will then start to deliver on our civic commitments, enhance social cohesion and inspire future generations for successful careers in social care and health.
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