Government Announces Funding Boost And Reforms To Social Care
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting (Alamy)
3 min read
The Government has announced a funding boost and immediate reforms to the social care system, alongside the launch of an independent commission investigating how to improve adult social care in the long-term.
The commission, that the Government said will be cross-party in order to build "consensus", will make its final recommendations in 2028.
On Friday, the Department of Health and Social Care said there will be a £86m boost to the Disabled Facilities Grant for this financial year. The grant helps disabled and elderly people make their homes more accessible and avoid staying in hospital for longer periods.
The department also announced some immediate reforms to the system.
These include increasing the use of care technology, supporting care workers to take on further duties to deliver health interventions, and expanding the national career structure for care staff to allow more opportunities for career progression. A digital platform will be developed to allow medical information to be shared between the NHS and care workers.
As set out in Labour’s General Election manifesto, longer-term reforms will be implemented to aid the creation of a National Care Service.
To help this work, Health Secretary Wes Streeting is launching an independent commission into adult social care that will be chaired by crossbench peer Baroness Casey and make recommendations to ministers.
Nominated for a peerage in 2020, Casey was previously commissioned to carry out a review of the Metropolitan Police in London following the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.
The commission will be split into two phases, with the first phase reporting in mid-2026 and identifying the key issues facing adult social care and setting out recommendations for reforms. The second phase, reporting by 2028, will make longer-term recommendations to address social care for the UK's ageing population.
Opposition parties will be invited to take part in the commission and build a cross-party consensus on how to build the National Care Service, with Streeting saying this would ensure long-term reform "survives governments of different shades".
Successive governments have failed to tackle the issue of the struggling social care system despite warnings about growing pressures and the UK's ageing population.
NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard recently told The House magazine that it is “definitely not possible to talk about the NHS without talking about social care”, particularly on urgent emergency care.
Pressures on the social care system mean hospital beds are often taken up by people who should have been discharged, adding to the challenges facing the NHS.
Liberal Democrat MP and Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee late last year told The House that she felt the UK was at a “standstill” on social care, calling it a “glaring omission” in the Labour government’s economic plans.
Speaking on Friday, Moran said the commission was "welcome" but "cannot be an exercise in kicking the can down the road".
“We are concerned that any further delay perpetuates the hardship for individuals and their families, as well as the cost to the NHS and local authorities," the Lib Dem MP said.
The Government is also expected to set out further details in the coming days on its plans to reduce NHS waiting lists, PoliticsHome understands.
Streeting said: “The investment and reforms we’re announcing today will help to modernise social care, get it working more closely with the NHS, and help deliver our Plan for Change.
“But our ageing society, with costs of care set to double in the next 20 years, demands longer-term action. The independent commission will work to build a national consensus around a new National Care Service able to meet the needs of older and disabled people into the 21st century."
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