Parties have neglected social care in election campaign, say sector heads

The political parties have neglected social care and its value in “transforming lives” during the election, sector bodies warned politicians today with less than a fortnight until polling day.

The sector has not been as prominent as it should have been during the campaign and when it has been discussed, it has been characterised as “broken” and in crisis, or with a “narrow” focus on how it should be paid for and how it can help cut hospital waiting lists, they said.

The organisations urged the parties to increase their focus on adult social care and highlight its role in improving lives and as a fundamental part of local communities, during the remainder of the campaign and as part of the new government’s strategy for power.

The message came in a statement to the parties signed by 42 bodies from across local government, the provider sector, the workforce and disabled people’s organisations. The letter was co-ordinated by the Local Government Association (LGA) and signatories included Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the British Association of Social Workers (BASW).

What the parties are offering on adult social care

Following the launch of their manifestos, both Labour and the Conservatives were criticised for their lack of funded commitments to improving or reforming adult social care.

Both parties are committed to introducing an £86,000 cap on people’s personal care costs along with a more generous means-test by October 2025, however, according to think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), these commitments are not funded.

The Liberal Democrats and Green parties proposed more radical change in their manifestos – including the introduction of free personal care for people requiring adults’ services – and allocated dedicated resource to their plans. The Lib Dems have also placed greater weight on social care in their campaign, notably through a video of leader Ed Davey talking about his experience as a carer to his late mother and to his disabled son.

However, both the Lib Dems and Greens referred to the service as being in “crisis”, including in reference to the over 400,000 people waiting for assessments, reviews or care packages, according to ADASS data released last year.

This characterisation was rejected by the sector bodies in their statement, while they also criticised the parties’ focus on how social care should be funded, for example, through the introduction of free personal care or the cap on costs.

Sector ‘not as prominent as it should have been’ in campaign

“Adult social care is not as prominent as it should be in debates about the future of our communities; and…when adult social care does have its moment in the spotlight, it tends to be presented as a service that is broken and in need of being fixed, or defined in narrow terms around questions about ‘who pays for social care?’ or ‘how can social care help reduce hospital waiting lists?’,” they said.

“Important questions, of course. But the answers take us nowhere near articulating the true value of care and support.”

The sector’s value, they claimed, was in “transforming countless lives for the better” by helping people maintain relationships with friends and family, promoting health and wellbeing, supporting carers to stay in employment and providing employment to support local economies.

Call to ‘inspire hope and ambition’

Drawing on the work of one of the statement’s signatories, the Social Care Future movement, they added: “We know from our own work that when we talk about adult social care in this way, it resonates with people.

“It inspires hope and ambition. It flicks a switch in people’s minds which turns off the doom-loop of ‘crisis’ and ‘collapse’, the view of people drawing on care and support as inherently ‘vulnerable’, and the presentation of people’s support requirements to live a good life as ‘demand to be managed’.”

They urged parliamentary candidates “to talk more about adult social care in the remaining weeks of the election campaign and to talk about it in the above way”, while also urging the party that wins power to make prioritising and strengthening the sector “a central mission”.

Risk of ‘betrayal’ from inadequately funding social care

The statement was published on the same day as a separate open letter to party leaders, signed by 24,000 people and 54 sector charities, urging the incoming government to prioritise funding and reforming adult social care or risk a “betrayal” of the public.

The letter, organised by charity coalition the Care and Support Alliance, said: “Social care provision has slipped far below an acceptable level and is having very real consequences for millions of older and disabled people and their unpaid carers.

“Promise that you will make change happen in the next Parliament, come up with sustainable funding and support the social care workforce. Millions of older and working aged disabled people and their carers desperately need a social care system that works, and a failure to act would be a betrayal.”