News Story

Chancellor – Don’t ignore social care in the Budget

October 24, 2024

Dear Chancellor,

As Co-Chairs of the Care and Support Alliance, on behalf of our members, we are writing to you ahead of the upcoming Autumn Budget to raise our concerns about the levels of funding available for the delivery of adult social care in England.

The Care and Support Alliance (CSA), a coalition of over sixty of England’s leading charities, campaigns alongside the millions of older people, disabled people, and their unpaid carers who rely on adult social care. 

 

A group of over sixty older people, disabled people, unpaid carers, care professionals and Care and Support Alliance colleagues gather in Westminster to tell the Chancellor – don’t ignore social care.

Currently, at least 2.6 million people have to go without the care they need. Social care provision has slipped far below acceptable levels, and the lack of available services is having very real consequences. Consequences not only for the individuals whose lives are diminished and their families and friends who care for them, but for public services too – especially the NHS. 

Social care in England remains chronically underfunded and for far too long has been ignored by successive Governments. With an ageing population, and a growing number of disabled people of working age needing care, demand is increasing yet funding is not keeping pace. Workforce vacancies remain stubbornly high and public satisfaction with social care is at its lowest ever. Too often, unpaid carers are left to pick up the pieces with little or no support, with huge implications for their health and wellbeing, and their ability to participate in the labour market. 

Understanding the full magnitude of social care funding requirements is essential to developing a workable, sustainable long-term solution to ensure that older people, disabled people, and unpaid carers get the social care they have a right to. While the Health Foundation estimates there is at least an £8.4 billion annual funding gap for adult social care, the previous Government asserted that social care was adequately funded but refused to publish the maths. We are also concerned that in the development of Equality Impact Assessments for previous Budgets and Spending Reviews, inadequate information was considered by the previous Government regarding the social care funding sufficiency test – including whether evidence was ever considered in relation to unmet need. A different approach is sorely needed.

Your upcoming Budget is an opportunity for the Government to take steps towards addressing what the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and Minister of State for Care, have both recently described as a ‘broken’ system. As such, we, and the people we represent, urge you to act decisively to:

– Address the shortfall in social care spending and put in place a long-term funding commitment to meet future demand. Piecemeal pots of funding will not deliver the change, services, or stability the sector and care users need. 

– Provide additional funding to enable local authorities to tackle social care assessment and carer’s assessment waiting lists, so that they can fulfil their statutory duties under the Care Act 2014. 

– Address the core issues facing the social care workforce – including pay conditions and levels, career pathways and skills recognition – as a matter of priority. 

– Remove social care charging entirely for working-aged disabled adults, so they do not have to part-fund their care from state benefits designed to pay for daily living costs, like food and heating. 

We’re pleased that you are thinking about long term ‘once and for all’ solutions to what has been a political football kicked into long grass by previous governments and stand ready to support the work of the Government in any way we can. This should be accompanied by more support for families and unpaid carers, including the development of a new National Carers Strategy, investment in carers’ breaks, the introduction of paid carer’s leave, and a rapid review of Carer’s Allowance and other social security benefits that carers can claim. 

While we appreciate that the Government has inherited an unfavourable economic situation, investing in social care need not be seen as a hindrance to economic stability. Instead, it must be regarded as a productive investment that offers a significant opportunity to support the Government’s health and growth missions. For example, supporting people – both those of working-age who draw on care and support, and unpaid carers – to enter the labour market or return to work, would bring clear economic benefits to the state. Significant cash savings would also accrue to the NHS from providing good care out of hospital and preventing long, costly hospital stays.

The 2010s proved to be a ‘lost decade’ for social care reform; continuing to underfund social care and delaying wider reforms only makes it an increasingly costly prospect. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes again.

Thank you for your consideration. 

Yours sincerely,

Emily Holzhausen CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Carers UK

Jackie O’Sullivan, Executive Director of Strategy and Influence, Mencap

Caroline Abrahams CBE, Charity Director, Age UK