Today a Commons report highlights how much the adult social care sector is underfunded.
Layla Moran said that this had to change:
Care workers work tirelessly but instead of getting the support they need they face low pay, falling morale and a high turnover of staff.
The country is in desperate need for a long-term plan to fund the increasing demand for care. That is why the Liberal Democrats propose putting a penny on income tax to raise the transformational investment needed to support care workers and protect the future of care services.
We need to do more to value care as a profession, pay people properly and give them career progression and job satisfaction. With an ageing population, it makes sense to do so for everybody’s benefit.
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8 Comments
Does the party ever consult people in the care sector about this stuff? This penny on income tax is becoming like “Paddy’s magic penny” which could miraculously address all ills in education. It will not raise enough to fund the health service proposals in the manifesto + Dilnot + all the things Layla Moran proposes here. Raise all these ideas by all means but be honest about the funding implications.
As a former Convener for Social Work, I have to say Ruth is absolutely correct. Is it the same penny, a second penny, or indeed how many pennies does the task need?
I’m afraid what come across with the party these days is a lot of well meaning muddle with a large labyrinth of obscure working parties based on London and the Home Counties. One of the great strengths of the party when I first joined in the Jo Grimond days was that he approached leading authorities in various fields to advise on policy. Until Sir Vincent Cable replicates this people will just dismiss the party as insubstantial amateurs.
Sorry for defending the central party but yes people in the care sector are asked and leading experts are approached to advise on policy:
The 1p NHS and social care ring-fence came from an expert panel: https://www.libdemvoice.org/expert-health-panel-calls-for-ringfenced-health-and-care-tax-to-replace-national-insurance-56547.html
The cannabis regulated market was likewise: https://www.tdpf.org.uk/resources/publications/framework-regulated-market-cannabis-uk-recommendations-expert-panel
And there’s another one recently convened by Vince on life-long learning: https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases/16532-vince-cable-announces-major-commission-on-lifelong-learning
Thanks for that, Tim.
I’ve now read the Commons Committee’s report. It’s very strong on analysis, but fails to quantify a financial cost.
Tim – I’ve never met David, we are not ganging up on you – honestly! But as David says the report is a menu without proper prices. Also the worthy contributors are fantastic but most of them are high-ups on the health side. Layla Moran was talking about proposals for frontline social care, uncosted ones at that. Most care assistants and activity co-ordinators in dementia care are getting £7.83 an hour (£7.38 if they are under 25). There are 850,000 people in this country with dementia. For all their carers to receive a salary that denotes professional status plus individual support and training would be fabulous but would cost untold millions.
IMHO the country needs a complete rethink on its welfare system and how to fund it, because there are so many needs and so many people suffering. I am hoping great things from the economics working group because at the moment the pennies are still being paid by the same old people in accordance with the same old theories about tax. May likes things as they are, Corbyn wants to renationalise and clobber the rich, this is where we Lib Dems can make a difference. We could halt the process of keeping wealth in the hands of a few people whilst at the same time rewarding enterprise because we want fairness for all, not just the few and not just the many. However, in order to do this we’ll have to face up to an awful lot of flak. Carrots as well as sticks will need to be employed and people will need to be reminded that you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, or possibly scramble eggs without breaking them first, if we want to appear less Francophile. In other words keep erudition where it belongs and talk to people in language they understand.
The answer is to remove the profit motive from the adult social care set up by returning to something like the system that existed prior to privatisation which started following legislation passed in 1990.
We need a national publicly funded care service but unfortunately senior people in the party seem to shy away from this proposal.
Sorry but a penny on tax just doesn’t cut it as a serious suggestion to solve what is an ever growing crisis.
I’ve spent 20+ years on this theme going back to the campaign which led to the Blair Royal Commission. It’s not about how to organise it or make plans; that’s already all there. As I set out in my essay in “Four in Search of Big Ideas”, it’s simply about money. HM Treasury have blocked every plan and proposal from competent and committed Ministers over that time and their political masters haven’t had the will to change that. The answer is clearly a mix of state spending, individual assets and insurance. The penny on income tax is becoming cross-party popular because it doesn’t address the wider need for properly funded public services. Politicians have to start being honest about the cost of all public services of acceptable quality and how to pay for them.