Spring forecast: A health and social care perspective

It is time that the role of the social care sector and its support of the country’s most vulnerable, is recognised and not hampered at every turn. In what is feeling like an uphill battle for providers, the tides have to turn to open up more access to high-quality care and not continue to dampen it.

Although increased spending for the social care sector has been acknowledged by the health secretary in the last day or so, interim activity to bridge the financial gaps is desperately needed, particularly in the absence of any real detail on how generous the NHS plan is likely to be. If the sector’s previous handling is anything to go by, support is unlikely to be enough.

Measures to counteract the significant pressures that the sector is under, as a result of employer national insurance increases and rising costs, are needed to stop the exodus that has seen more providers exiting than ever before.

In an effort to reverse these effects, the sector is calling for fair fee uplifts from local government to the tune of 9% or more, in order to protect the future care provision of vulnerable people and ensure that financial pressures don’t impact quality of care or access.

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