Pre-election insights for health and social care
Matt Wort, senior partner and head of health and social care considers the future for health and social care providers.
Successive governments have failed to address the urgent need for reform across the health and social care sector. The sector is now in crisis, due to sustained underfunding and growing demand for services.
Matt Wort, senior partner and head of health and social care
Having reviewed the manifestos, policy announcements for the health and social care sector are few and far between – perhaps the challenges facing the sector are just too big and too costly. It’s the smaller parties that come closest to recognising the scale of the problem and the changes that are needed.
The next Government must address the needs of the care workforce. As a society, we need to recognise that caring for others should not be a minimum wage job. The Fair Pay Agreements proposed by Labour show some understanding of this problem, although a regulated minimum rate for care roles would be a more effective way of ensuring fair pay for the care workforce. This is because the sector is too diverse for pay rates to be agreed collectively – what works for the NHS, won’t work in social care, and nothing will be achieved without funding.
To achieve long-term reform, the Labour party has recognised that there is a need to build consensus. We just hope that the people who receive care and support will be at the heart of this conversation.
Other interesting policies in the manifestos include:
Labour’s National Care Service – What would this look like? We expect that the main focus will be on ensuring the accessibility of care.
Day 1 rights for care workers – Labour’s proposed workforce reforms include Day 1 rights for protection from unfair dismissal, redundancy pay, maternity leave and flexible working. This could bring increased costs for social care providers and be a deterrent to smaller providers and start-ups. This could lead to further consolidation in the sector.