£500m plan to boost social care staff

MEASURES to boost the social care workforce will be announced today – as it emerged more than 40,000 staff left the sector in six months.

Health minister Gillian Keegan will unveil a ten-year plan with £500million earmarked for ‘workforce development’.

The white paper, called ‘People at the heart of care’, will also promise £300million for supported housing units for the elderly, £150million for digital development and £30million to promote joint working between the NHS and social care.

But Richard Humphries, an independent social care expert, said that there is a ‘lack of proper money to tackle longstanding challenges’.

It came as the Nuffield Trust warned there is a ‘deepening crisis’ in social care staffing ahead of a challenging winter. The think-tank analysed Department of Health figures and found the workforce fell from 1,584,535 in the week ending April 27 to 1,542,590 in the week ending October 26.

But it added that this is likely to be an underestimate due to not all providers submitting data.

Natasha Curry, of the Nuffield Trust, said: ‘It’s likely we will see even more care staff leave the sector this winter at the worst possible time.’