ADASS urges government to make adult social care 'fit' for the 'modern era'

The president for ADASS has warned social care “cannot make do and mend any longer” and calls on the government to fulfil its promise of a once-in-generation transformation of care and support for older and disabled people.

Speaking at the opening session of the annual National Children and Adult Services Conference yesterday, ADASS president Stephen Chandler said the funding so far committed to deliver long-awaited reform of adult social care in England was “grossly inadequate. We cannot make do and mend any longer.”

The challenge now was to “close the deal on the right reforms to make adult social care fit for the modern era and a proper pillar of our welfare state, almost 75 years after it was given a walk-on part.”

Mr Chandler said: "We are assured that the reforms will represent ‘a once in a generation transformation.’

“I know for many including myself the jury is still out on whether the parts of the draft plans we have seen will deliver that or that the funding identified will be enough. Just two per cent of the funding to be raised by the new health and social care levy on national insurance next year will in fact come to social care.”

From April 2022, National Insurance contributions and dividend taxes will increase by 1.25 percentage points. The increase will raise almost £36bn over the next three years with only £5.4bn to be invested in adult social care.

Mr Chandler warns £3.7bn is allocated to charging reform and the fair cost of care and £500m has been committed to workforce training, which leaves only £400m a year to deliver those once in a generation transformational reform.

Mr Chandler said: "Quite obviously, that is grossly inadequate.

"Adult social care deserves more - it deserves better. So, continue to work with us to loudly champion not just for reform but also the necessary funding to deliver them.

“We cannot rescue health and social care in the short or the long-term by addressing issues in one part, it has to be both. Adult social care deserves more. It deserves better.”

Mr Chandler also expressed disappointment that the government had not responded to a call by ADASS for a £1,000 bonus for care workers and funded breaks for the most hard-pressed unpaid carers in recognition of their unrelenting commitment.

Both measures would cost less than one per cent of what had been spent in fighting the pandemic and would help see the care sector safely through a winter that had all the hallmarks of a “perfect storm”, he warned.

The ADASS presidents also welcomed the greater public awareness of the role of adult social care that had come about as a result of the pandemic. And he thanked the government for embarking upon reforms that the sector had been urging “for decades”.

The NCAS conference is taking place virtually over three days.