(Published 23 October 2020)
Evidence given by members of the Agincare team has played a key role in informing recommendations in the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s ‘Social Care: Funding and Workforce’ report on the future of the social care sector.
The committee, led by former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, examines the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department of Health and Social Care.
After having heard from a host of expert witnesses members called for urgent significant investment in social care – amounting to £7bn a year by 2023/24 – to start addressing a crisis in funding.
Members also called for a sustainable funding settlement to provide competitive pay for social care workers and parity with NHS staff, and urged the Government to work with the sector to streamline training and improve career progression.
Our expert witnesses gave the Committee first-hand insight into the realities of the care sector. On 23 June Weymouth home care worker Mel Cairnduff told the committee about her experience of working in home care, particularly during the coronavirus outbreak.
At the same meeting our CEO Raina Summerson explained why care workers deserve more recognition as key workers on the frontline and how the current council system of commissioning care on contact time only served only to undermine trust with care providers.
Raina commented on the ‘Social Care: Funding and Workforce’ report:
We are passionate about being able to deliver good care and are therefore pleased that the committee members listened to the compelling evidence from the Agincare team and other industry experts.
While we agree that the additional £7bn of funding the committee calls for is a positive starting point, if accepted by the Government, it would be just that – a start.
We need real and sustained reform to resolve fundamental issues in the care sector and give it, and the millions of people who depend on it, the bright future it deserves.