A Conservative austerity plan to save the public sector £12bn over the next year has prompted fears that social work posts will be axed and services hit.

The Conservative Party manifesto did not contain a reference to social work and had no detail on the party's long-awaited plan to fund home care.

The Conservatives have pledged, however, to legislate on insuring people against care home costs.

Tim Loughton, shadow children's secretary, says he is prepared to trust social workers and free them from central controls – even in the face of high profile mistakes.

All funding for early intervention and parenting support will be combined into one budget under a Conservative government.

Integrated children's system (ICS) providers have welcomed Tory promises to slash budgets in government-funded IT.

The Conservatives would also scrap benefit payments for people found guilty of benefit fraud three times.

A re-elected Labour government would establish a national college for social work and develop a national care service, while constraining public sector pay.

The Labour Party manifesto also says that children's social workers will be increasingly based in schools and colleges if Labour wins the general election.

Labour’s manifesto sets out an ambition for children and youth services to work closely with education, "increasingly co-locating wider children's services with schools". The manifesto also outlines plans to expand specialised foster care for the most vulnerable children as well as the Care2Work programme for all care leavers.

Children's minister Baroness Morgan is certain that extra cash pumped into services such as guardians' body Cafcass will produce results.

On adult social care, Labour plans to:

The Liberal Democrats have pledged to publish anonymised serious case reviews in full, as part of their general election manifesto.

The Liberal Democrats also pledged to make dementia the priority area for medical research in their election manifesto.

Other Liberal Democrat’s general election pledges include:

Green Party

The Green Party would introduce free personal care for older people in England – along the lines of Scotland’s policy – and increase the carer’s allowance by 50% to £80 a week. It also wants to “heal the rift” between adults’ and children’s services in local authorities, suggesting it would favour the recreation of social services departments in England. It also wants improved working conditions for public sector professionals.

Plaid Cymru

Plaid Cymru would seek to transfer powers from Westminster to the Welsh Assembly so it could introduce free personal care for all disabled and older people in the country. It also wants devolved powers over mental health, would prioritise the abolition of child poverty and ensure that people on incapacity benefit with mental health problems would not face cuts in their benefits if they failed to meet conditions set by job centres.

Scottish Nationalists

The SNP has pledged to guarantee the future of the country’s free personal care policy for older people.

It also said it would oppose any changes care funding in England that would impact on Scots, such as reforms to attendance allowance, and would also end the holding of children of asylum seekers in detention centres.

UKIP

The United Kingdom Independence Party would introduce non-means tested vouchers which adults can spend on meeting long-term care needs up to a limit of £20,000.

It also supports the establishment of what it calls “congregate communities” for people with learning disabilities, though did not go into detail about what this would consist of.

The party faced controversy after one of its candidates, Paul Wiffen, posted a racist message on Community Care’s Outside Left blog. Paul Wiffen, who was also UKIP’s London chair, later stepped aside as the party’s candidate for Ilford South, east London, after making insulting remarks about the Queen.

Democratic Unionist Party

The Democratic Unionist Party offers a commitment to tackling child poverty and wants to see the development of comprehensive strategies aimed at lifting deprived communities out of poverty and creating genuine opportunities for people of all ages.

It calls for a simplification of the social care funding system and the provision of universal free personal care. The manifesto also wants respite support for carers and greater investment in intermediate care.

Ulster Unionist Party

The Ulster Unionist Party has allied itself with the Conservatives for this election and is effectively campaigning on the same manifesto.

The Sinn Fein manifesto is not available as yet. Nor is the SDLP’s document or the Alliance Party’s available.