🎙️ Care and Support West CEO on BBC Radio Bristol – Listen to the Interview

This morning, David Smallacombe, CEO of Care and Support West, joined Joe Sims on BBC Radio Bristol to speak candidly about the financial pressures facing care providers in the West Country. His message was clear: unless urgent government action is taken, the care sector is at serious risk.

👉 Listen to the full interview here:

Here are the key points from the interview:

• The Sector is on the Brink: Rising costs - including increases in the national living wage and National Insurance - are pushing many care homes and community-based providers toward collapse.

• Underfunding is Decades Old: Adult social care has been underfunded for years, and while councils have tried to keep pace with rising costs, central government grants haven’t kept up.

• Gap Between Costs and Funding: Providers are facing cost increases of 9–11% this year, but most councils are only offering uplifts of 2–8%. That funding gap is unsustainable.

• Staffing Crisis Deepens: With over 100,000 vacancies, David called for immediate changes to immigration rules, including reversing restrictions on overseas care workers bringing dependents and addressing the pay disparity between domestic and overseas recruits.

• Immediate Government Actions Needed:

  1. Exempt social care from the National Insurance hike (as has been done for health and local authorities).

  2. Reconsider rules on overseas workers and their families.

  3. Launch the Baroness Casey independent review immediately and report by the end of 2026—not 2028.

• The Case for Long-Term Reform: David pointed to models in Germany, Japan, and South Korea, where long-term care insurance systems spread the cost more fairly, basing personal contributions on income rather than assets like housing.

• Social Care and the NHS Are Interdependent: Without strong social care, the NHS is at risk. COVID showed us just how closely the two are linked.

• Call for Collaboration: Care associations like Care and Support West are ready and willing to work with the government and Baroness Casey to design practical, effective reforms—starting now.