News

Delayed discharge fines would be scrapped if a Conservative government was elected, the shadow health minister pledged at the National Social Services Conference, writes Clare Jerrom.

Tim Loughton said the system of fining local authorities for bed blocking can only serve to undermine the good working relations that have been built up between health and social services as “Peter is robbed to pay Paul regardless of whether Peter is in a position to do anything about it in the first place”.

“Probably yes, we would repeal it,” Loughton told delegates at Brighton. “However in two year’s time it may have got better, although I very much doubt it”.

Loughton said he would also like to see a greater share of the health budget going to social care because for so long social services had been “working on the crumbs”.

Loughton slammed the government’s recruitment campaign for social workers, announced at the social services conference two years ago, as being “a low key affair, certainly when compared to the top billing given to the recruitment of doctors, nurses and teachers”.

While the “finger of blame” is continually pointed at social workers, “it is difficult to see how the problems with high vacancy rates can properly be addressed.

There should be more innovations in flexible working, and the pay gap between social care and health professionals salaries should be addressed, he said.