Labour has already lost ground on social care, it needs to catch up fast - Ismail Mulla

Social care is an issue that needs to be grabbed by the horns. There is no time for the Government to shoo it into a barn.

I’ve kept a close eye on what the sector has been saying for the past three years. It has never been this restless.

To be fair campaigners say that they have tried raising awareness of the issues besetting social care for several decades prior to that.

Providers feel that they are simply not being listened to with social care perennially being kicked into the long grass.

The fact that adult social care providers are considering upping the ante, including not accepting referrals for a day, if their protests fall on deaf ears, highlights just how much unrest there is in the sector.

Speak to any of the number of social care campaigners who took part in a march in Westminster on Tuesday and the theme is the same.

Social care is "close to collapse" and “facing a struggle to survive this spring”.

The Department of Health and Social Care says: “We inherited significant challenges facing social care and have taken immediate action, including a £3.7bn funding boost, 15,000 new installations to help disabled people live safely and independently in their own homes, and a £2,300 increase to carers allowance.”

But the Chancellor’s Budget is clearly going to thump the sector. The investment announced for social care will be dwarfed by the costs from National Insurance contributions (NICs) and wage increases.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves increased the rate of employers’ NICs by 1.2 percentage points to 15 per cent and slashed the threshold at which the tax starts being paid from £9,100 to £5,000 to raise £26bn a year.

She also announced that the national living wage will increase by 6.7 per cent for employees aged 21 or older – from £11.44 an hour to £12.21 – from April.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) has previously estimated the effects could cost councils about £1.2bn in inflationary pressures and a further £0.6bn in the cost of provider fees paid by councils.

There will be some sympathy for the Government for the situation it inherited. An economy on its knees, tears in the fabric of society and standstill in certain public sector organisations.

But heaping more pressure on social care providers is going to come back to haunt Labour. Surely it is not too late for the Treasury to reconsider and either exempt social care from the rise in NICs or even find money from elsewhere to help it bridge the cost.

Labour has promised to set up a National Care Service in its manifesto.

However, given there is scant detail on what that will look like, faith in the idea is evaporating fast.

Establishing a meaningful National Care Service would not only tackle some of the long standing issues with the NHS, it would also reinvigorate the Labour party.

With an aging population, it is imperative that adult social care is put at the front and centre of the healthcare system.

The independent commission, led by Baroness Louise Casey, is set to start in April, but a second phase, making long-term recommendations, might not report until 2028. That’s some very long grass the ball has been kicked into.

As Mike Padgham, chair of North Yorkshire’s Independent Care Group, says “It’s not just about providers, there are two million people not getting any care whatsoever. The Government can act quickly on things if it wants to – it did so within days of being elected – why does social care always have to wait so long?”

The Government cannot say it has not been warned. It cannot turn a blind eye to the crisis in social care any longer.

Instead of being seen as a modern day Bevan and Attlee, Wes Streeting and Sir Keir Starmer will be remembered as Delboy and Rodney.

The only problem for them is that the people are already seeing through the Peckham Spring water.