Government social care funding cuts "shame country," says Scarborough based leader

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has confirmed that £250m will be set aside to “transform the way we support the social care workforce,” - despite previously pledging £500m.

And other previous commitments to social care funding including £25 million to support unpaid carers and £300 million to integrate housing into local health and care strategies have not been mentioned.

Asked about these, the department said the support for unpaid carers will be set out “in due course”.

But Scarborough based Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, said the number of vacancies in the sector - around 165,000 - was “crippling” the delivery of social care.

Mr Padgham said: “This is yet another cruel and unfair cut to the funding we need to provide help and support to older and vulnerable people.

“The sector is going through an unprecedented staffing crisis with 165,000 vacancies crippling our delivery of care.

“We need every penny of funding and cannot afford to have £250m removed at a stroke like this.

“The Government insists that all promised funding will stay within the sector but we cannot believe a word they tell us anymore.

“The sector is suffering demise by a thousand cuts and the people who will suffer most are the 1.6m people who cannot get care and the hundreds of thousands more who are finding they need help and support, every day.”

He continued: “Care providers cannot afford to pay their staff properly and so the list of vacancies continues to grow, crippling the delivery of care.

“This cannot go on any longer. It is a state of affairs that shames a civilised country like ours.”

Mr Padgham was joined by shadow health minister Liz Kendall, who said: “This is a total betrayal of older and disabled people and a care system that has been pushed to breaking point.

“13 years of broken promises and failure on reform has left a care system in crisis.”

The Government said its “refreshed plan to bolster the adult social care workforce” would speed up discharge from hospital and accelerate the use of technology in the sector over the next two years.

The department said it will launch an Older People’s Housing Taskforce in partnership with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities “to decide how best to provide a greater range of suitable housing depending on the support people need”.

It comes as NHS leaders broadly welcomed a review by former health secretary Patricia Hewitt which calls for a raft of targets to be scrapped and a bigger focus on preventing ill health.

The study, commissioned by the Government, says a few targets help concentrate minds but having too many makes them less effective.

The NHS continues to miss major targets on A&E waits, ambulance response times and cancer waits and treatment times.

Ms Hewitt says the NHS is, in practice, more of a national illness service than a national health service and called for rapid change.

The Government should also consider creating Citizen Health Accounts carrying people’s health information and data, to help people manage their own health and care, the review said.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said ministers would respond to the review, adding: “Integrated care systems are an important part of the Government’s plan to deliver more joined up and effective health and care services and to cut waiting times for patients, one of the Prime Minister’s key priorities for 2023.”