Social Care At “Standstill” After Budget, Says Health Committee Chair Layla Moran
3 min read
The social care system is “basically at a standstill” following the Budget, the new chair of the Health and Social Care Committee Layla Moran has said.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves on Wednesday pledged a £22.6bn cash injection for the NHS — in what represents the biggest day-to-day increase to NHS spending since 2010 outside the Covid pandemic.
Reeves promised £600m to social care, which is to be shared between adults’ and children’s social care. The amount comes to just 1.5 per cent of the £38.6bn councils have already set aside to spend on adults’ and children’s social care this year and next.
In an interview with The House, Moran accused the Labour Government's first Budget of having a “glaring omission” when it comes to social care.
“What we heard in the Budget – £600m – that is roughly what you need to stand still just by virtue of extra demand,” the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon said.
“We are basically at a standstill with social care, and what's needed now is rocket boosters of investment to try and sort this out once and for all.”
While Moran welcomed the £22.6bn the Chancellor pinned for the NHS, she said the Government “can't tackle the issues in the NHS, let alone the wider productivity issues in the economy”, without “looking at social care”.
Moran revealed that the Health Committee’s first inquiry will be exploring the cost of inaction on adult social care reform, to get “rocket boosters” behind the area.
“We do need cross-party talks to get the ‘what’ done," she said.
"But the job of the committee at first is to make the case that it needs to be done quickly. Hence the very first inquiry that we're intending to hold. The purpose of that is to get some rocket boosters under this agenda.”
New Labour MP for Calder Valley Josh Fenton-Glynn, who sits on the same committee and spent three years as a council cabinet member for social care, agreed that while the £600m is a “good first step”, a “sustainable model is needed”. He now hopes the committee can be an avenue to “show the changes we need” and “what good care will look like”.
In 2023 there were approximately 250,000 people waiting for a care assessment in England, according to sector organisation ADASS, while House of Commons Library research found that 161,000 hours of home care could not be delivered between January and March 2024 because of staffing capacity.
The Lib Dems have made reforming social care their priority, after the issue was raised repeatedly on the door step during the General Election. Leader Ed Davey now hopes to use his 72-MP strong presence in Westminster to push for cross-party talks on the subject.
“It cannot be one party that owns social care, in the same way that I would argue there is no one party that owns the NHS,” said Moran.
“It's helpful that all political parties feel that they own this and that it is important for them to leave it in a better state than they found it.”
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