[IER] Social care funding a "national scandal", say Lords

Fri Jul 5 17:06:33 BST 2019

IER News Brief 05/07/19Follow us on Twitter  
news brief
Friday 05th July 2019
A cross-party group of Lords has described social care funding in the UK as a "national scandal", noting that workers are underpaid and undervalued, family and friends are being forced to take on unpaid care work, over a million older people are not receiving the services they need, and the poorest are being hit hardest.

The Economic Affairs Committee urged the government to provide an immediate £8bn cash injection and reform the provision of care, including by giving free personal care - such as washing, dressing and cooking - to people who need it.

"The whole system is riddled with unfairness," Committee Chair, Lord Forsyth, said, noting the absurdity of the fact that people receive free NHS care their whole lives then are expected to front the costs of illness in old age themselves. 

"Someone with dementia can pay hundreds of thousands of pounds for their care, while someone with cancer receives it for free."

But public sector union Unison emphasised the social crisis is not just about funding, but also about the exploitation of workers in an increasingly privatised system.

"We also have to be able to find workers prepared to take on the challenge of delivering complex care when they could earn more stacking supermarket shelves," Christina McAnea, Assistant General Secretary of the union, said.

In IER report 8 Good Reasons Why Adult Social Care Needs Sectoral Collective Bargaining, law expert at Cardiff University, Dr Lydia Hayes, argues that the only way to build a fair and effective social care sector is to give workers a voice in their pay and conditions and service users a voice in their care.

Drawing on international evidence, Hayes demonstrates that the implementation of a more democratic social care sector can improve care standards and provide fair pay and conditions for the professionals that provide care.
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