Get Social Care Done: Future Social Care Coalition to launch Social Care People Plan Framework

It’s time to get social care done and for the Government to bring forward its promised proposals for social care reform starting with workforce reform.

That’s the message coming from a cross-party group of politicians – including current and former health and social care ministers, health and social care select committee chairs, social care employers, employees and users, and industry experts – who will be launching a new Social Care People Plan Framework to deliver better respect, reward and regulation for those working on the ‘forgotten frontline’.

The plan will include 12 recommendations to Government including on issues such as registration and professionalisation; wages and working conditions; skills and training opportunities. The plan has been developed with input from all parts of the sector so no social care worker is left behind. The social care sector is larger than the NHS – 1.6million compared to 1.5million – but there is no workforce strategy.

The cross-party group of Parliamentarians, including Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee and former health and social care minister Jeremy Hunt MP, leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey MP and shadow health and social care minister Liz Kendall MP, will come together at the Future Social Care Coalition’s (FSCC) Summer Summit on 24 June to make the wider economic case for improving pay, conditions and career progression for social care and support workers.

The event, which is the first of its kind, will see politicians, social care users, workers and employers make the economic case for putting the social care sector on a sustainable long term footing It is a vitally important sector which employs 6% of the entire workforce and is worth £46 billion to the economy annually.

Phil Hope, former Minister of State for Care Services and co-chair of the Future Social Care Coalition, said:

“The FSCC Summer Summit will give social care workers, users and industry experts an opportunity to shape and inform the Government’s Queen’s Speech promise to support the development of the adult social care workforce. It provides an opportunity to engage with those working in the sector about how
best to support them.

“The pandemic has shone a light on the widening gap between how we treat our social care workforce compared to colleagues in the NHS. There is an urgent need to level up the social care workforce with an immediate funding boost and in the long term the sector needs major reform. Many people will need social care at some point in their lives which is why we need to act now to overhaul how the sector, and its workforce, is treated.

“At the Summit we will be demonstrating the economic benefits of parity, respect and fairness for the social care workforce and make the case that the time for action is clearly now not later.”

Established in 2020 to fight for a fair deal for under-valued social care workers, the Future Social Care Coalition is calling on Government to take immediate action to deliver:

• Parity of esteem for the social care sector with the NHS: if social care is to improve and increase health and wellbeing outcomes, the social care service must no longer be treated as the ‘forgotten frontline’
• A comprehensive social care workforce strategy designed to generate skills training, professionalism and improve pay and conditions for social care workers
• A substantial and immediate funding boost for social care and, in the longer term, a social care funding solution that is both equitable and sustainable

The Future Social Care Summer Summit (24 June) will be a major conference to make the economic case for social care reform. The Summit will build on the consensus achieved at the FSCC Social Care People Plan Conference, launch a Social Care People Plan Framework to submit to Government and make the economic case for a fair deal ahead of the Spending Review. Tickets are available via EventBrite.

Find out more about the Future Social Care Coalition and follow the FSCC on Twitter for updates.