CEO of the Homecare Association, Dr Jane Townson OBE said:
“We appreciate the positive steps the government has taken in acknowledging the value of care work and progressing with elements of their reform programme.
Providing a clear career pathway will encourage those looking for work, as well as those already employed in care roles, to see the opportunities for developing their skills and experience in the sector.
Financial support for training and professional development is helpful when provider margins are tight. Focusing on improving consistency and portability of the Care Certificate will hopefully raise standards and reduce the time and cost of training new starters. Investing in digital leadership is also important, given the government’s goals to join up care and ensure that at least 80 percent of providers are using digital care records.
The commitment to training 37,000 individuals is excellent, but represents only a small percentage of recruits in the sector.
Regrettably, the substantial budget cuts made by the government severely limit the scope and potential impact of these workforce reforms.
The Department of Health and Social Care had initially agreed with HM Treasury to spend £1.74 billion on system reform. Now it plans to spend only £729 million between 2022-23 and 2024-25, a reduction of 58 percent. They reallocated the remaining £1.01 billion to other social care priorities and reduced the funds for workforce proposals from £500m to up to £250m. With 1.52m people working in care, this is an average of only £164 per employee over two years. This amount is nowhere near enough to improve pay and terms and conditions of employment, which are required to increase retention and recruitment.
Homecare plays a vital role in enabling us all to live well at home and flourish in our communities. Investing in homecare helps to enhance wellbeing; increase healthy life expectancy; reduce pressure on the NHS; and save money for the health and care system.
We urge the government to invest an extra £8 billion per year in social care to ensure we have enough care workers with the right skills and experience to meet the needs of our population.”