UK pledges £600mn to boost social care services ahead of winter

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A total of £600mn has been allocated by the government to retain and hire additional social care staff in England as ministers try to shore up public services ahead of what is expected to be one of the NHS’s toughest ever winters.

The department for health and social care said on Friday the sum included a £570mn workforce fund spread over two years and distributed to local authorities, and £30mn for areas with the most “challenged” health systems. 

Campaigners and health leaders welcomed the decision to announce the extra cash as early in the year as July, to guarantee it over two years and to give local authorities flexibility over spending.

However, they warned the sector, where around one in 10 posts currently stands vacant, remained under massive strain and urgently needed wider reform.

Alongside reforms announced earlier this year, intended to improve the status and training of social care staff, and an NHS workforce plan unveiled in June, they would “build a stronger overall foundation for the health and social care workforce”, DHSC said. 

The funding would also support the NHS by preventing hospital admissions and helping people to be discharged from hospital more quickly “cutting waiting times for A&E and ambulances”, the department added. 

A plan to boost urgent and emergency care published in January suggested that around one in four patients who were unable to be discharged despite being medically fit to leave hospital were awaiting home care.

Around 16 per cent were waiting for a care home place and 24 per cent intermediate care, the study showed. 

Minister for care Helen Whately said the government’s workforce reforms “will help more people pursue rewarding careers in social care with nationally recognised qualifications.

“Our investment in social care means more funding to go to the front line,” she added. 

Beverley Tarka, president of the association of directors of adult social services, said the government was “putting us in a much better place than last year, when funding came too late, while we were already in the middle of a winter crisis”.

Its latest survey found that three-quarters of directors were concerned they would not have enough in their budget to get people the right care at the right time.

While the additional funding would not solve all these problems, it would “help stabilise the situation and help us address the challenges this winter,” she acknowledged.

When the government announced its reforms earlier this year, campaigners and experts complained that only around £250mn had been earmarked for the social care workforce, compared with at least £500mn promised a year earlier. 

Welcoming the allocation of extra funding, Nuffield Trust fellow Camille Oung said social care was often raided to pay off other Whitehall budgets “so keeping this promised pot of money and prioritising care workers was the right decision”.

However, she warned that “we cannot be sure that this funding alone will meet the depth of the problem after years of neglect” and “a comprehensive programme of reform” was needed.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents health leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said social care budgets had been “below what is needed for a very long time”.

While the promised funding was positive “there is still a desperate need for a long-term social care workforce plan, similar to the recently published NHS workforce plan”, he added.