Adult social care leaders have broadly welcomed Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s pledge to accelerate reform, bring forward Baroness Casey’s adult social care independent commission report and pursue wider workforce changes, while warning that ambitions for a National Care Service and improved pay must be backed by sustainable funding.
Mr Burnham used a speech delivered alongside Baroness Casey and health secretary Yvette Cooper at a Jewish Care North London care campus this week to announce the independent review’s final report will be brought forward to 2027, the launch of cross-party discussions on reform and tasking of the Department of Health and Social care (DHSC) to bring forward “bigger” workforce reforms beyond the Fair Pay Agreement to “lift” care workers “closer to NHS standards.”
Funding must match ambition
Care England chief executive Professor Martin Green OBE said providers had been encouraged by a Prime Minister making social care a priority early in his premiership.
“Care England warmly welcomes a Prime Minister who has chosen to spend the second week of his premiership standing in a care home and telling the country that social care matters,” he said.
He called for the shift in tone to be followed by delivery, adding: “Our members will want to know what will this look like and how it will be funded, and they will rightly want to see the ambition set out today matched by the money to deliver it.”
Responding to plans to strengthen workforce reform, Professor Green said ambitions to move care workers closer to NHS pay levels were welcome but cautioned that commissioners must be required to fund any new obligations placed on providers.
“The Prime Minister's ambition to lift care workers towards parity with the NHS is the kind of ambition the sector has long been waiting to hear, provided the funding is found to make it real,” he said.
The National Care Forum also welcomed the move to accelerate reform, with the not-for-profit provider body backing efforts to secure long-term, cross-party consensus and warning against allowing progress to become derailed by short-term political pressures.
Meanwhile Skills for Care chief executive Professor Oonagh Smyth CBE welcomed Mr Burnham’s call to widen workorce reforms beyond pay to look at training and integration with NHS staff infrastructure, and highlighted the existing Care Workforce Pathway as a foundation for delivering reforms at pace.
Calls for consensus and co-production
Social Care Institute for Excellence interim chief executive Gerard Crofton-Martin welcomed the decision to bring forward the Casey review and said reform must be shaped by people drawing on care and support.
“Cross-party support is essential to all of this,” he said. “We now have a chance to build consensus across the public, politicians and the social care sector.”
The Local Government Association also backed the focus on long-term reform and workforce improvement, but warned current funding proposals may not be sufficient to meet the full costs of a Fair Pay Agreement, and called for councils to be involved in decision-making to protect care provision and local government finances.
Meanwhile, Nellsar Care Homes managing director Martin Barrett said the sector should be closely involved in shaping any new National Care Service.
“Funding will be central to the success of any reform,” he said. “Providers need a sustainable model that enables them to invest in skilled team members and continue delivering high-quality, person-centred care.”
