Home care leaders warn social care's £5.4bn is 'nowhere near' the £11.7bn needed

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new UK-wide Health and Social Care Levy which will raise £5.4bn for social care over three years has been condemned by a home care leader who calls the figure “nowhere near enough” because the home care sector needs £11.7bn a year.

MPs have voted (319 to 248) in favour of a 1.25 percentage point tax rise in National Insurance for workers and employers to fund Mr Johnson's NHS and social care plans.

However, Dr Jane Townson, the chief executive of the UK Homecare Association (UKHCA) has estimated that paying for existing homecare at the 'UKHCA Minimum Price for Homecare', as well as providing home care for an extra 1.5m people with unmet care needs, will cost at least an extra £11.7 billion a year.

The UKHCA has calculated that the 'Minimum Price for home care' for April 2021 to March 2022 is £21.43 per hour, effective from April 2021.

UKHCA’s Minimum Price covers the minimum legally compliant pay rate for care workers, their travel time, mileage and wage-related on-costs and also includes the minimum contribution towards the costs of running a care business.

'Unlikely to solve existing problems' says UKHCA

Boris Johnson has announced he wants to increase National Insurance contributions by 1.25 per cent as part of plans to raise £36bn over the next three years for the NHS and social care.

Out of the £36bn pot raised from the new Health and Social Care Levy, some £30.6bn will go to the NHS to help tackle longer waiting lists caused by the Covid pandemic while £5.4bn (less than £1 in £6) will go to social care over the next three years.

Of the £5.4bn available, £2.9bn will go towards system reform and £2.5bn will fund the PM’s care cap promise that individuals in England will not have to pay more than £86,000 for care in their lifetime (excluding food and accommodation costs).

The Prime Minister's £86,000 care cap will be introduced from October 2023 but Jane Townson has said the cap “will not help many” as only 1 in 7 people spend over £100,000 on care costs.

Dr Jane Townson said in her latest blog: “The reality is that the proposals are unlikely to solve existing problems in social care and risk creating new ones.”

People with assets below £20,000 will receive full state funding for care and people with assets of between £20,000 and £100,000 will receive some means tested state-funded support.

The home care leader described the PM’s announced rise in the asset threshold for access to state-funded care, from £14,000 to £20,000 as a move of “potential significance”.

But she also warned “Our fear is that the government will use the fact that they have created additional funding from the Health and Social Care levy to reduce funding for social care at the Spending Review” which takes place on 27 October.

Health Secretary says social care to get bigger slice of levy after 3 years

In a Downing Street briefing hosted by Boris Johnson, Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid on 7 September, Mr Johnson said the tax hike will begin April 2022 before becoming a separate Health and Social Care Levy in 2023.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there is an urgent need to deal with the pandemic-driven patient backlog in the NHS which had led to the decision to prioritise more of the levy to the NHS in the first three years. Mr Javid said he hoped “more of the proportion of the levy will go towards social care” after three years.

The Prime Minister has called the £36bn investment for NHS and social care over three years “responsible, fair, and necessary action taken to provide biggest catch-up programme in the history of the NHS and reform the adult social care system”.

“We’re doing something that frankly should have been done a long time ago”.

Home care's Cera boss calls social care the 'poorer sibling to NHS’

Home care provider Dr Ben Maruthappu, the chief executive of Cera said: “Sadly, social care continues to be treated as the poorer sibling to the NHS, and we need to see greater levels of parity between the two.”

“Additional funding is a big step in the right direction and is very much welcome, however, it will take much more than just money to address the most pressing issues facing social care in the UK.

"For the two services to integrate more and work together productively, we need to see much greater equality in terms of investment and resources.

“It doesn’t address the core infrastructural challenge facing social care, which is a lack of capacity. There must also be a concerted effort to attract new talent into social care, to solve resourcing issues and help put people back to work after the pandemic in new and rewarding careers.”

Highlighting that social care affects over 10 million people at any one time, a government document (‘Build Back Better: Our plan for Health and Social Care’) stated ‘For the first time, using legislation included in the 2014 Care Act, we will ensure that self-funders are able to ask their Local Authority to arrange their care for them so that they can find better value care’.

Lib Dem leader caring for disabled son confronts PM

In Prime Minister’s Questions on 8 September, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who is a carer for his disabled son, said Mr Johnson’s social care plan forgot family carers who just want a fair deal.

The Liberal Democrat leader asked whether the PM will raise carers' allowance and change employment law so families can balance their responsibilities with work.

Ed Davey asked: “Why does the PM keep ignoring carers and taking them for granted?”

Mr Johnson replied that his social care plan will bring changes across the board and bring “dignity” and progression for care workers.

In the House of Commons, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called Mr Johnson’s proposals a “sticking plaster over gaping wounds which his party inflicted”.

Home Instead chief urges PM to bring home care 'in from the cold'

Home care leader Martin Jones, chief executive of Home Instead UK has said the PM’s social care announcement is "a welcome focus from the UK Government but, be under no illusion, funding is only part of the national solution that is needed.

“The majority of social care is currently provided by carers in the homes of the individuals being cared for. Yet home care has historically received relatively little attention from policy makers, when compared to care homes.

"Now is the time to bring us in from the cold, and ensure quality home care is central to the new integrated national care solution helping to relieve pressure on the NHS.”