On Friday, DHSC published the long awaited Terms of Reference for Louise Casey’s social care commission.

In response, the three co-chairs of the Care and Support Alliance; Caroline Abrahams CBE, Charity Director at Age UK, Jackie O’Sullivan, Executive Director of Strategy and Influence at Mencap, Emily Holzhausen CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Carers UK, said:

““It’s great news that the terms of reference for the Casey Commission have now been published and that the work has got formally underway.

“We are pleased that Baroness Casey is being given the scope to explore all the issues that require examination as part of the process of creating a sustainable National Care Service worthy of the name. However, we are dismayed that the terms of reference the Government has set refer to the need for “recommendations that can be implemented in a phased way over a decade”, suggesting that we will not get a fully reformed social care system until 2036. That’s far too slow, and it means that social care transformation is being put off for two parliaments, possibly longer. This delay is particularly alarming in light of the rapidly growing demand for social care driven by demographic changes with people living longer, often with more complex needs. Estimates suggest that at least 1.7 million more adults will require social care in the next 15 years. Especially given that some other similar countries, like Germany and Japan, overhauled their care systems more than twenty years ago now, it’s unacceptable that in England older and disabled people and their unpaid carers are being asked to go on waiting.  

“We welcome the fact that Baroness Casey’s first act was to convene a roundtable of people in receipt of care and unpaid carers. It was exactly the right place to start and we hope this approach of learning from those with direct experience of care – professionals and providers as well as recipients and their families – will be a prominent feature of how the Commission operates.    

“We’ve waited a long time for an initiative like this Commission and as the Care and Support Alliance we look forward to supporting it in every way we can.

“We make no apology however for the fact that we will also continue to put pressure on the Government to act more immediately wherever this is feasible; for example by progressing a Fair Pay Agreement that improves the terms and conditions of care professionals, and by supporting the care workforce in other ways too. Ministers have a continuing responsibility to act, even though the Casey Commission has begun.”