Dear Prime Minister,

The scale of the challenges facing our health and social care services is clear for all to see. Both you and Mr Sunak have mutually acknowledged the crisis in recruiting and retaining our social care workforce and what further inaction will spell for workers and the people they support.

Now as our new Prime Minister, it is time for action.

The Government pledged to make an “unprecedented investment” in health and social care as part of its ‘Build Back Better‘ plan. The plan acknowledged the chronic institutional problems in social care that were in place well before the COVID-19 pandemic. It recognised the immense pressures social care professionals faced and their importance to the wider system. And it promised to “make care work a more rewarding vocation” by investing in long-term professional development and well-being.

Much has changed even in the short time since the plan was launched last year, and it is now clear that the proposals do not go far enough.

The ongoing inertia in delivering a fair deal for social care workers poses dire consequences for our economy, financial as well as moral. 98% of English Councils surveyed by the Local Government Association don’t believe that the Government’s adult social care plan is funded well enough – for both people drawing on social care and care workers. Staff shortages have risen by 52% alone this year. These gaps have directly contributed to a marked decline in care quality in three-quarters of all care homes in England. What’s more, shockingly, half of England’s social care professionals earn less than entry-level supermarket roles.

As charitable providers are forced to look to how they can make cost-cutting savings and use reserves to see through the winter, the outlook for people who draw on social care is bleak.

United Response is calling on you, Prime Minister, to prioritise addressing the social care workforce crisis during your first one hundred days in office. We would urge you, and your Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to follow the Health and Social Care Committee’s recommendations to introduce a long-term, sustainable strategy that explicitly provides pay progression, secure employment, professional development, and career pathways.

Specifically, we are calling on you to:

  • Ensure short-term emergency funding is made available now to providers to meet the very real costs of managing through the coming winter months, to allow us to pay staff fairly and ensure that they can afford to remain working in social care.
  • Commit to benchmarking the minimum pay rate for social care workers to NHS Band 3 (currently £10.40) and to funding its introduction from April 2023.

Bold leadership is required to arrive at a fair deal for social care workers and the people they support – it can only be delivered by equally bold political will. The time to act is now.

Yours,

Tim Cooper

Chief Executive Officer

United Response