Social Care Reform - Clubhouse

Tonight’s topic was around Social Care Reform and what we want to see for the sector.

York Woodford-Smith said he has been in lots of care homes and not been into one where he thinks something is not quite right. Everyone knows about the need for re-form and for something to happen but I don’t know what this is. If we put more money into social care/LA get more finances for funding then I don’t think that will help the problem. It doesn’t mean that they are going to deliver better care. It may ease pressure in a particular way. Is it that we need to be thinking about our futures and changing needs or how we perceive social care.

Amanda Griffiths said that she doesn’t necessarily feel that we are running out of time but we do get crescendos of change and then it doesn’t happen. For me, what we need is a very detailed review of what is required, it cannot be one party. It needs to be a coalition of multi parties, providers represented and people from different ages represented. Like York said, many people don’t think about their future care needs and they don’t think about care until they or their loved ones need it. We need to see what is working and what isn’t. Its very easy to throw money at things but no one will ever get that work. When you actually look at the pandemic at how much money has been spent but break it down for individual providers it is miniscule. Adult social care before the pandemic was identified as the top local pressure and I can imagine this has increased even more. We need to work out what the demand is, the projected demand and what people want. Funding underpins a lot of it but we need seamless integration between health and social care – would help where and when we look after people and prevent timely delays when people move services. This registration of our workforce would also give the status of working in social care, reduce the vacancies. In summary we need to do a really big review. Understand demand and costs, raise public awareness and registration of our social care workers.

Olivea Allegrini-Jones - Local authorities led by central government. 112k jobs nationally at any one time. National turnover of 30.4 nationally. Aging population. By the 2035 need to increase workforce by 35%. In terms of reform we need professionalising of the workforce. We need development of our staff. Integration with the NHS. More recognition. Matt Hancock to wear the care badge.

Jenni Mack – I am not political and come at it from a basic side but points none the less. What York was saying was very true about the cost and people don’t understand the costs to be in care. I work for social care provider but I don’t even know how much it actually costs to care for someone. When fees are so high people are shocked but when people can see a breakdown of the fees and where the money goes it would help. I work with a number of people to raise awareness of care and it would be great to see social care as the next step after school, college, university, work etc. We aren’t putting people in care, we are doing what is best for people. We need to share ideas and documentation to help the residents. In general for reform I would love for us to work together more. The NHS gets so much backing to show how amazing it is but we need to be obvious and actually open the doors to see how amazing we are. We should try harder to work together. Celebrate some people want to just care and if it paid better children would aspire to do this work.

Jay Dodhia – disparity in the fees depending on the area you are in. Cross working. No claims against COVID for NHS but not care homes. Not a level playing with the NHS. How will NHS and social care integration work, who would have a bigger budget, would it be a ringfenced formula. Staff are professionals, need to be seen as such and paid as such. All providers I think would like to pay staff more but cant. LA have confirmed that homes should be looking for private subsides to top up what they paid. Different pay rates from LA so there needs to be standardised.

Mindy Sawhney - Sharing how we make our businesses work and support each other better. ￡16billion on residential at the moment. ￡5billion on domiciliary and its only going to grow. We need to encourage private individuals and cant rely on government to pay for this. The Dilnot Report in 2011 put forward really good ideas such as government offering a care. Integration between health and social care. Shifting upstream – shift spending earlier on to prevent a higher level of need. Professionalisation of the sector. We cant have healthcare workers paid the same as supermarket workers. I absolutely detest the idea of social care workers being heroes. We should recognise them, pay them for the work they do, recognise they go above and beyond and not normalise what they do.

Primrose – transition of a career path. There is not a clear path like there is for finance etc. For someone wanting to come into domicilary care, they are hit by insurance, DBS costs etc and it all starts on a negative. If there were guidelines, insurance from government if you join the sector, NVQ at college we would have the workforce for tomorrow. Make it into something more appetising for the younger generation.  

Natalie Dobson – I think with COVID, one of the things that has made it easier for providers is that government has shown that they can subside costs such as training, DBS, qualifications etc which really help with onboarding new care workers. Even if they aren’t looking at rates, bringing things like supplies and everything they have done during COVID to alleviate costs so we can spend this cost on something else such as recruitment costs, marketing etc will help. They have shown they can help make a difference. Health and social care really do need to come together but collaborate together not just be together.

Tobi Alli-Usman talked about the confusion from families who need care, what does it mean if they have assets and it was agreed that lots of education is needed from an early stage. Wealth investors, insurances, tax – just basic awareness.

Discussion about the amount of people not being able to receive care (AGE UK report) due to not meeting the criteria that has slipped and slipped.

In summary there was an overall disappointing feeling re queens speech, technology integration is vital, we need clarification of what funding means, the regulator, Care Quality Commission could lead on collaboration, we need reform so the sector is sustainable for the future, raising awareness that social care is part of society – someone you know or you will need to use social care.

Mark Topps touched on feedback from speakers about how NACAS (National Association of Care and Support Workers) is the only private professional body for care workers. Everyone who works as a carer or support worker is eligible to join. Unpaid care workers are welcome to join for free, and supporters and students can join as well. if you're an employer, you can become a corporate sponsor. You can read more here:

Mark also summarised about how collaboration is key and the end result only benefits the people who use our services. If you are interesting in joining other social care staff working together to build a bigger/better social care future please drop me a DM. You can read more about collaboration in my latest column:

Thank you again to everyone who joined us this evening!