Tories told to focus more on funding

A future Conservative government should tackle poor pay and underfunding in social care, its policy advisory group on public services has said.

In a report this week, the party’s public services improvement policy group said social care funding, from both the state and individuals, had to rise to keep pace with demand.

Attention to pay was “unavoidable”, given its current low level and high vacancy rates, alongside investment in training, it added.

In a consultative paper, the group also asked whether health and social care should be commissioned by the same agency.

The group supported several key Labour social care policies and themes, including individual budgets and investment in low-level services – both key planks of January’s health and social care white paper.

The report added that the party had previously placed insufficient trust in public service professionals.

The Wellbeing of the Nation