Care England chief warns government must use their “huge majority” to push through urgent reforms needed in social care.
The last 18 months have been “some of the most challenging and difficult” the adult social care sector has faced and ministers must act urgently to help it survive a “relentless attack from a range of forces”, Professor Martin Green has said.
The Care England chief executive used his speech at his organisation’s annual conference in Westminster today to warn that the sector’s “ability to deliver care and support” is likely to be impacted “in some areas” due to changes to the overseas visas system if the government doesn’t “sort” changes to ensure affected care staff can stay in their jobs.
If not addressed, the policy would be a further blow to providers who have already had to “mothball” new services and “make redundancies of dedicated staff” as a result of increases to national insurance contributions for employers, which has “put millions onto budgets,” he added.
“People who came from overseas are making a valuable contribution to our sector, and what we need is to have that recognised, and we need to have a very seamless process, if the government is going to change the policy, to be able to keep people who are here in our services.
“And if the government does not sort that out, we will certainly see some significant challenges in some areas around the ability to deliver care and support,” he said.
Professor Green also used his speech to back Baroness Louise Casey’s call last week for ministers to take immediate action is six areas, including dementia care, safeguarding for vulnerable adults and motor neurone disease service access – and not wait for her first report due later this year.
He urged the care sector to support Casey’s efforts by giving her evidence and “views about how the system must change” as she “has a real grasp of the issues and is prepared to speak truth to power.”
He added he was “really pleased” that she has told the government to take immediate action.
“There are things that they need to do now, and we must try and give those suggestions to government and challenge them to do things,” he told the conference.
He added that it he wanted to “remind government” that change is “easy to do” and because they have a “huge majority” – which also means it has “no hiding place” .
“Instead of talking about ridiculous things like political consensus, which they did talk about earlier, they need to know that when you have a big majority, you have the capacity to do things, and I do not want them to push this again into the long grass, and I think we have to keep up momentum around that,” he said.
He also said he is concerned that reconfiguration of some local authorities, changes to Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), the abolition of NHS England and changes at the Department of Health and Social Care will lead to “two and a half years of navel gazing”.
“What happens in these situations is the public sector spends its life focusing on the reorganisation, and they forget they also have a role which is about business as usual, and they cannot have a situation where they think we will suspend what we do, while they navel gaze for two and a half years, about which particular office they're going to be in, or who's got a job,” he said.
However he said he is also “very optimistic” about the work the sector does and called for delegates to “stand together in difficult times”.
“We need to get people understanding the amazing contributions social care makes to people's lives and also to local economies. We need to get that message very clearly across.
“ I do hope that we can all be united and stand together in these difficult times.”
