Peter Lazenby
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GOVERNMENT cuts in social care spending will cause “further chaos and deaths” for England’s most vulnerable people, unions and campaigners warned today.
Pledged £500 million funding for the social care workforce is being halved, the government confirmed.
The government had promised a “protective ring” around social care, but the Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed the figure will now be £250m.
Health think tank the King’s Fund described the cut as “effectively yet another ill-judged raid on a social care system already on the brink.”
Linda Burnip of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) said: “With over 165,000 vacancies in the social care sector, halving the promised funding to support this sector will lead to further chaos and deaths.”
She said disabled and older people needing support are dying before being seen.
Mike Padgham, chairman of the Independent Care Group, which represents care providers in North Yorkshire, said: “We need every penny of funding and cannot afford to have £250 million removed at a stroke like this.
“The government insists that all promised funding will stay within the sector but we cannot believe a word they tell us anymore.”
Jackie O’Sullivan, of learning disability charity Mencap, described the plan as “an insult to a sector that was once treated as a priority for government.”
Union figures also slammed the cut, with TUC general secretary Paul Nowak saying: “The government promised to throw a protective ring around social care. But instead, it is presiding over a perfect storm.” And Unison’s head of social care Gavin Edwards said: “Those in need of care and those who deliver it need and deserve a lot better.”
Shadow social care minister Liz Kendall argued that Labour would “tackle record vacancies through a new deal for care workers, and fundamentally shift the focus of support to prevention and early intervention, so that more people can be cared for in their own home which is where they want to be.”
But Ms Burnip warned that “Labour’s policies on social care are at present little better than those of the Tories and they continue to refuse to make social care free at the point of need.”
Social care minister Helen Whately said the package announced “focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves.”
