The House of Lords economic affairs committee has written to Care Minister Helen Whately urging the government to provide £8bn of immediate funding to improve care quality.
Select committee chairman Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (pictured) said the social care sector was already overstretched prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and needs the funding “without further delay”.
“Without the necessary upfront investment, the gap between funding and need will continue to widen dangerously, the pressure on unpaid carers and local authorities will increase, and the most vulnerable in society will suffer as a result,” he wrote.
Forsyth continued: “There is no reason why action should not be taken now to provide higher pay to care workers in publicly funded care providers, as we recommended. Continued cross-party talks are not necessary for mitigating this immediate funding crisis.”
The committee last month wrote to Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock demanding a response to the former’s social care inquiry that called last year to end the “national scandal” of failing services.
The committee's report, ‘Social care funding: time to end a national scandal’, published on 4 July 2019, urged the government to inject £8bn immediately into the sector to improve care for 400,000 people.
