The Care Support Alliance (CSA), which represents more than 60 charities in England, has urged Rishi Sunak to fulfil the Government’s 2019 pledge to ‘fix the crisis in social care once and for all’.
Caroline Abrahams, CSA co-chair, said: ‘Since Boris Johnson pledged to fix social care four years ago, we have all been on a wild goose chase as one Government policy after another has been announced with a fanfare, only to be subsequently shelved, diluted or dropped.
‘The Prime Minister stood for office on the 2019 Conservative manifesto and says he wants to abide by it, so rather than backtracking on social care reform he needs to stand by his word and drive forward with it.’
Reforms to charges for adult social care, including changes to the means test and cap on personal care costs, were due in October 2023 but postponed by two years.
A new Health and Social Care Levy, meant to help fund social care reform, was also cancelled.
In April, the Government announced it was halving the £500m it had promised for workforce training, qualifications and wellbeing.
According to a report by Skills for Care, in 2019/20, when Mr Johnson pledged to fix the social care crisis, there were 110,000 vacancies in the sector in England. There are now an estimated 152,000.
Emily Holzhausen OBE, CSA co-chair, said families were providing more unpaid care than ever before and many were ‘at breaking point’. As a result of a lack of care, people were having to reduce or give up paid employment, she added.
Ms Holzhausen said: ‘Care users, families and providers deserve more than empty promises. The government must demonstrate its commitment to older and disabled people and their families by taking immediate action to tackle the social care crisis.’
