Comment on Thursday's Budget
Dear Member
Yesterday the Chancellor delivered a budget speech which supported pretty much everything else in the UK other than Social Care and rather lamely (in my view) only mentioned it as part of the NHS investment the government is making. As you will see below from Care England --- they are of the same view.
The only small light on the horizon seems to be that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has written to parliamentarians to begin building cross-party consensus on some type of social care reform (where have we heard this before!!) In order to keep a positive spin on this initiative we will be inviting local MP’s to meet with a group of providers so that you can express your views on this vexed and long standing issue directly to those who sit at Westminster to see if we can avoid yet another long grass kicking syndrome being brought into play again!!
So watch this space for an invitation to participate in the “MP informing” process!
This from Care England: Earlier today, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, laid out the Budget for the coming period. Some key policies:
· £5bn emergency response fund to support the NHS and other public services in England.
· All those advised to self-isolate will be entitled to statutory sick pay, even if they have not presented with symptoms.
· The tax threshold for National Insurance Contributions will rise from £8,632 to £9,500
· Economy predicted to grow by 1.1% this year, revised down from 1.4% a year ago.
· The figure, which does not take into account the impact of Coronavirus, would be the slowest growth since 2009.
· Carers’ leave – The Government will shortly consult on the design of Carers’ Leave: a new in-work entitlement for employees with unpaid caring responsibilities, such as for a family member or dependents.
The Budget was somewhat overshadowed by the emerging threat from Coronavirus. In response, the Government has set up a COVID-19 emergency response fund which “set aside to ensure the National Health Service (NHS) and other public services have the resources they need to tackle the impacts of COVID-19. Initially set at £5 billion, it will fund pressures in the NHS, support local authorities to manage pressures on social care and support vulnerable people, and help deal with pressures on other public services. The size of the fund will be reviewed as the situation develops, to ensure all necessary resources are made available.”
Care England has stated in response that history has shown that the distribution of such funds has typically been one-sided and focused upon fulfilling the NHS’ own goals. Instead, the COVID-19 response fund should be allocated in a way which supports all parts of the health and care system, something which is of fundamental importance when one considers the intertwined nature of the NHS’ and social care systems future fortunes.
Also, the Government announced in today’s Budget that it had set the Low Pay Commission a formal target of increasing the National Living Wage reach 2/3 of median earnings by 2024. However, Care England stated in response that since the introduction of the National Living Wage we have already seen how the failure of the Government to fund the National Living Wage appropriately has adversely affected the adult social care sectors financial viability. This policy failure has flown in the face of the advice offered by the Low Pay Commission that “In the sectors which Government itself funds – social care and childcare – sufficient funding is necessary to meet the cost of the rising NLW.” Care England is of the view that such targets should be accompanied by the creation of a sufficient funding model for the adult social care sector to allow the National Living Wage to be introduced in a sustainable manner.
In broad terms, the Budget said little more regarding social care than what had already been stated in the previous funding round and the Conservative party’s 2019 Manifesto: “The Government is committed to long-term reform of adult social care and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has written to parliamentarians to begin building cross-party consensus on reform. Ahead of those discussions, the Government will invest £1 billion of additional funding for social care next year, as announced at Spending Round 2019. The Budget confirms that this additional funding will continue for every year of the current Parliament to continue to stabilise the system.”
The failure of Government thinking to have gone any further than merely restating past manifesto proposals is a worrying feature of this Budget. More considerable attention and more significant funding must be allocated to the adult social care sector if its future sustainability is to be ensured into the coming years and decades. We respect the fact that government attention is currently focused upon Coronavirus developments. However, the continued closure of care services will have ramifications for the Government’s ability to deal with the outbreak. Therefore, we believe that this Budget represented a missed opportunity for the Government to ensure both the short- and longer-term financial viability of the sector, alongside the futures of the many millions of people whose wellbeing and employment is inextricably linked to it.