Agenda item

This council believes adult social care should enable people to live the life they want to live.

But despite the previous government’s commitment to ‘fix social care’, deferrals by and excuses from that same government have left this vital public service in a desperate condition.

The problems in social care are particularly evident in the workforce. Many care staff are paid minimum wage or less for a difficult and skilled job. Some domiciliary care employees do not get paid for their travel time between care visits, while care workers are paid significantly less than the minimum wage for overnight sleep-in shifts. Most care workers do not even have access to an adequate occupational sick pay scheme, which means they lose significant sums in wages when they are unwell or need to self-isolate.  Meanwhile, this country has been shamed by the exploitation of many migrant care staff, who are forced to work excessive hours or pay huge amounts for their training or equipment.

Figures from Skills for Care show there are 131,000 vacancies in the care sector, one of the highest rates in the entire economy. Workforce shortages; poor pay and conditions; and a lack of national direction on social care mean too many people cannot access the care they need. 

The Labour Government is proposing local government reorganisation which will reconfigure the structure and responsibilities of local government. This will mean that the responsibilities of any future unitary authority in Cambridge will include social care. The Cambridgeshire County Council has noted that between 2020 and 2024 the cost of providing services for older people and people with physical disabilities increased by 64%. Rising demand for these services will inevitably impact any future Cambridge council’s budget.

But there is hope. This council notes the campaign by UNISON, the lead trade union in social care, for a National Care (NCS) in England, for a service which will:

·      improve the quality of care for everyone who needs it.

·      support independent living and take a ‘home first’ approach which enables people to recover outside hospital and care homes with the right help.

·      promote public sector and non-profit delivery of care services.

·      have national partnership working, bringing together employers, unions, and government in a national partnership.

·      Implement a Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care.

This council also welcomes the commitment made in the Labour Party's 2024 general election manifesto to ‘undertake a programme of reform to create a National Care Service, underpinned by national standards, delivering consistency of care across the country’.

This council further notes that the Fabian Society has published a comprehensive plan for building a NCS in England, with empowered local authorities at its core, called Support Guaranteed: The Roadmap to a National Care Service.  The report states: ‘Councils should remain in charge [of social care]. But our firm view is that more nationwide rights, standards and functions are needed for local government to fulfil its adult social care mission.’

This council believes that building a NCS can also help drive wider economic growth. The 2023 Future Social Care Coalition report Carenomics demonstrates the contribution that social care makes to the UK economy, with the sector generating in England alone £51.5 billion in gross value added (GVA) to the economy.

This council pledges its support for a NCS and encourages the new government to carry out this reform.