Liz Truss must deliver on Tory promise to ‘fix social care’ says Care England

Care England has written to the new prime minister outlining some immediate solutions that would relieve current and future pressures on social care.

These solutions include:

• Introducing a per-bed energy price cap equivalent to the proposed domestic energy price cap.
• Extending the £400 energy rebate to vulnerable people in care.
• Removing VAT and the Green Levy on energy bills.
• Implementing the recommendations of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee report and committing to addressing existing inequalities through increased funding to the adult social care sector.
• Committing to a long-term workforce strategy for adult social care which aligns pay and benefits with the NHS and local authority-run services.

Professor Martin Green OBE, chief executive of Care England, said: “The adult social care sector is under extreme pressure. Long-standing workforce and funding issues have been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis, set to worsen in coming months. Care England has delivered a blueprint of immediate action to the new government to start the re-stabilisation of the sector which current government support packages have failed to do for energy, workforce, and funding. This is essential to prevent widespread market collapse and to help commence the journey towards a sustainable future for the sector given 45 per cent of providers in the South East are considering exiting the market.

“It is time that the Conservative manifesto promise to ‘fix social care’ is taken seriously and finally actualised under this new leadership. Providers are still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and against the backdrop of the cost-of-living-crisis, chronic underfunding, and the absence of a long-term workforce strategy, these will culminate to be the straw the breaks the camel's back. Adult social care can only survive with the necessary support from central government, without which it will face total collapse. We are continuing to find opportunities for the government to take advantage of, yet little has been acted on. Change is needed, and it is needed now, to protect some of the most vulnerable members of society.”