Elderly abandoned by ‘Cinderella’ social care service
SOCIAL care in England was slammed as a “Cinderella service” by a damning official report yesterday.
The sector is undervalued and workers are poorly paid, the National Audit Office (NAO) said. And the workforce is not growing to meet demand – so increasing numbers of pensioners and other vulnerable people are left without help.
This is because the Department of Health and Social Care does not have a sustainable workforce strategy, the report warned.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “Social care is a fundamental public service on which millions of older people come to rely and it depends on there being sufficient numbers of well-trained, skilled and motivated people to do the job – at home and in care homes.
“This report is a damning indictment of successive governments’ failure to carry out workforce planning and the end result is the dangerously fragile situation we see today.”
The report warns of higher than national average vacancy rates in care and an increasing staff turnover rate.
Staff feel undervalued and have little scope for career progression, the report said. There are 1.34 million adult social care jobs in England. Last year around half of care workers were paid the minimum wage, £7.50 an hour.
The NAO has recommended the Government pumps extra money into the system so care providers can pay staff more and afford to offer career development and training.
NAO head Amyas Morse said: “Social care cannot continue as a Cinderella service. Without a valued and rewarded workforce, adult social care cannot fulfil its crucial role of supporting elderly and vulnerable people in society.
“The Department needs to respond quickly to this challenge by giving the sector the attention it deserves and needs, instead of falling short and not delivering value for money.”
Izzi Seccombe, of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Councils can’t plan due to uncertainty over funding and an annual £2.3billion shortfall that adult social care will face by 2020.”
The last time a national social care workforce strategy was published by the Department of Health and Social Care was in 2009. This document is now only accessible on the National Archive website and mentions organisations that no longer exist.