Social Care and Health

The current crisis in social care predates more recent challenges such as the cost of living crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic. Underfunding and undervaluation have led to an unsustainable care system, with increasing unmet needs and reliance on unpaid carers, mainly women. Meanwhile, the majority of the health and social care workforce are also women, along with a high proportion of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority and migrant workers. Failures to tackle the crisis in social care and health services therefore increase gender and racial inequalities as well as undermining the health of the wider population and as a result the economy.

In the short term, Local Government funding needs to be urgently restored to a level which enables councils to meet their statutory obligations, increase the minimum salary for social care workers to stop people leaving the sector, attract more workers into it, and improve quality of care. They also need adequate funding to provide the preventative, non-statutory services which are vital to the wellbeing of women, children and those in need of care.

In the long term, the Government must invest in creating a high-quality universal service that is free at the point of use.  Such a system would ensure that people’s needs are met in a way that supports their wellbeing, with a well-trained workforce with decent pay and conditions and financial costs shared progressively across society.