MPs launch inquiry into cost of inaction on social care reform
The first investigation of the newly formed Health and Social Care Committee will look at how much inaction is costing the NHS and local authorities and the knock-on effect on patients and the public.
It will also consider what contribution the sector makes to the economy and how any cost of inaction is felt if people feel the need to stop or cut their working hours as they wait for care or become full time unpaid carers.
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Hide AdCommittee chairwoman Layla Moran MP said: “Our social care system is in crisis.
“Over the years there have been many reviews and proposals, but successive governments have failed to tackle the problems, because they think reforms cost too much.
“But this ongoing inaction has a cost. No one is talking about the costs we are all accepting by not reforming the system.
“A cost to patients and their families, a cost to the NHS, a cost to our local authorities, and a cost to the wider economy and the Treasury.
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“This inquiry will investigate just how much the ongoing inaction on social care reform is costing us all.”
The committee said: “The provision of social care has been a challenge for successive governments, yet despite multiple reviews, many significant reforms have not been implemented.”
The new government has already indefinitely delayed its pre-election promise to bring in the fees cap on adult social care, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves blaming a £22 billion black hole in public finances.
Sir Keir Starmer also pledged to create a National Care Service within this Parliament, although there has been little detail.
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Hide AdHealth Secretary Wes Streeting has said he will announce plans around this in the next 12 months.
There has been speculation that the government will set up a Royal Commission on social care, with Mr Streeting saying he wants to “build a genuine national consensus around a National Care Service”.


However, sector leaders have accused the government of inaction.
Mike Padgham, who runs Saint Cecilia’s Care Group in Scarborough, told The Yorkshire Post: “To my mind if they want to make the NHS work better, they’ve got to tackle social care at the same time.
“I hope that they will rethink and get on with it quicker.
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Hide Ad“We’re in a critical position now and we haven’t got time to waste.”
Mr Padgham, who is also chair of North Yorkshire’s Independent Care Group, said he remembered when Tony Blair set up a Royal Commission on social care in 1997.
“Here we are all those years later and we still haven’t moved on,” he said.
“It was like Nye Bevan in 1948 - we need to be as bold as he was because we need to get change done.”
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Hide AdIn last week’s Budget, Ms Reeves announced an increase in the earnings limit for carers and £600 million of additional funding for councils for social care.
However, Mr Padgham believes that will all be wiped out by the increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and the rise in the minimum wage.
He said: “There was very little cheer for social care in the Autumn Statement as it was once again left out in the cold.
“The £600m on social care is welcome but by the time it is distributed to 152 local authorities and shared with children’s services it will have little or no impact.
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Hide Ad“Any extra funding that might reach providers will be wiped off instantly by the increases in NICs and minimum pay which will together heap further pressure on social care providers.
“For some they may well be the final straw, all at a time when we should be growing social care provision to meet the needs of two million people who currently can’t get the care they need.”
The Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby, Alison Hume, told this paper she was “really pleased to hear” about the increase in the carer’s allowance.
She said: “It’s a crisis in social care - we’re aware of that and our long-term plan is to have a National Care Service.
“We’ve come up with our short-term offer for the improvement for care workers of what they’ll be paid in the fair pay agreement.
“This is a really positive Budget for working people.”
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