Care England has graded Labour’s delivery of its adult social care manifesto commitments as “requires improvement”, awarding the government an overall C minus in a new scorecard published as prime minister Andy Burnham prepares to set out his reform agenda.
The representative body’s report, Two Years of Promises, assessed progress against every Labour 2024 manifesto commitment relating to adult social care, including plans for a National Care Service, workforce reform, fair pay, immigration and hospital discharge.
While the report identifies progress in several areas, it concludes that key reforms requiring long-term funding have stalled.
Care England said achievements included the first multi-year funding settlement for councils in a decade, the largest-ever increase in the Carer’s Allowance earnings limit, and legislation through the Employment Rights Act and Mental Health Act.
However, it said there is still no social care workforce plan, no national standards and no fully funded pathway to deliver the proposed Fair Pay Agreement (FPA).
‘Too little has actually changed’
Care England chief executive Professor Martin Green OBE said the government had delivered on some of its commitments but failed to match reforms with sufficient investment.
“This government made the right promises on social care, and where it has delivered, our scorecard says so plainly,” he said.
“But too much of what was promised exists only on paper. Laws were passed without the money to make them real, reform was handed to a commission, and in its first Budget the government imposed the biggest cost increase this sector has seen in a generation, compensated the NHS for it, and left care to carry it alone.
“A C minus is not a hostile grade. It is an honest one, and it should not be mistaken for nearly good enough. In the language our members are judged in every day of the year, this is a service that requires improvement.
“And for the people who draw on care and the people who provide it, too little has actually changed.”
The report awarded failing grades in two areas. Firstly, the failure to support care providers alongside the NHS after increases in employer National Insurance contributions represented the largest cost hike faced by the sector in a generation.
Secondly, the organisation also criticised immigration reforms, arguing restrictions on overseas recruitment had been introduced without the workforce and training measures needed to replace that source of labour.
Seven-point plan
Alongside the scorecard, Care England set out seven actions it said the new prime minister could take within a year without requiring further legislation.
These include publishing a social care workforce and training plan, fully funding the Fair Pay Agreement, ensuring councils pass on multi-year funding certainty to providers, introducing a national hospital discharge commissioning framework before winter and accelerating Baroness Casey’s social care commission.
Professor Green said the scorecard should be viewed as “the baseline” inherited by Mr Burnham rather than a judgement on his premiership.
“There is hope in social care again,” he said. “The seven steps we set out need no new legislation and would move the grades on this card within a year. Social care is his to fix, and ours to help him fix, and the work starts now.”
The prime minister is expected to set out his plan for adult social care reform in a speech tomorrow (Wednesday 29th July), which he has repeatedly said is a priority for his premiership.
