“Social care staff, as well as NHS staff, go above and beyond in their roles day after day and it is vital that we support them in their demanding work to provide high quality care."
Responding to a national engagement exercise with health and social care staff launched by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock, Cllr Ian Hudspeth, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“Social care staff, as well as NHS staff, go above and beyond in their roles day after day and it is vital that we support them in their demanding work to provide high quality care.
“The social care workforce often feels undervalued, both in general but also in comparison with their NHS colleagues, and we hope this consultation will signal a move from the Secretary of State to change that.
“This engagement exercise follows the public debate we are leading on how to provide a long-term solution to funding adult social care to rescue a system at breaking point due to years of underfunding, rising demand and costs for care and support.
“There is a pressing need to bridge a £3.5 billion funding gap facing adult social care by 2025 just to maintain existing standards of care.
“Action is needed, which is why, following the Government’s postponement of its long-awaited green paper on adult social care, the LGA has published its own green paper to drive forward the public debate on what sort of care and support we need to improve people’s wellbeing and independence and, crucially, how we fund these vital services.”
Notes
- The LGA’s green paper consultation, which runs until 26 September, is available here.
- The LGA will respond to the findings in a further publication in the autumn, which will be used to influence the Government’s own expected green paper, forthcoming Autumn Budget for 2019/20 and Spending Review.
- Recent surveys by the LGA show that 96 per cent of councils and lead members believe there is a major funding problem with adult social care; 89 per cent said taxation must be part of the long-term solution to funding it, and that 87 per cent of the public support more funding to plug the significant funding gap in the sector.