Furious social care leaders have reacted to an announcement that funding promised for the care workforce is to be halved.
The Tories had pledged to invest “at least £500m over the next three years” for the care workforce in England in a 2021 white paper.
The new Department of Health and Social Care announcement - sneaked out on Monday during the Parliamentary recess - cut this to £250 million.
The Mirror has launched the Fair Care for All campaign demanding a properly funded and trained workforce.
Overall the Tory announcement suggests around £600 million is being “held back” from the £1.7 billion of reforms already considered “a bare minimum” to halt the collapse of the care system.
The Department for Health and Social Care insists all the promised money will stay within social care and that it has yet to allocate the full budget.
But Sarah McClinton, president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services said: “This plan leaves that vision in tatters.
“It ducks the hard decisions and kicks the can down the road again until after the next election. £600 million is being held back from the £1.7 billion of reform programmes the Government announced last year.
“But adult social care is in crisis, with staff vacancies at an all-time high and half a million people waiting for care and support.
“Now’s not the time to be holding funding back, it needs to reach people who need care and support as soon as possible.
“And these funds were meant to be just a start.
“That means many more people won’t get the quality care and support they need, forcing more family and friends to step in where they can, more people deteriorating and being admitted to hospital and further damage to the NHS and the economy.”
Sally Warren, director of policy at health thinktank The King’s Fund, tweeted: “I have rarely felt the fury that I feel at today’s ‘announcement’ on social care. A massive retreat from what was already bare minimum first steps in long term reform.”
Natasha Curry, policy director at the Nuffield Trust thinktank said: “Today’s announcement is effectively yet another ill-judged raid on a social care system already on the brink.
“This multi-million pound cut to the funds intended to improve the system will be seen as a betrayal by those working in the sector and the millions of people left struggling to access the care they need.
“Halving the money to support the stretched social care workforce is a particularly low blow amid a cost of living and recruitment and retention crisis affecting social care.
“It’s all very well to create a skills framework but if employers don’t have the cash to recognise improved skills with better wages, it will fall flat.
“The smoke and mirrors attempt to sow confusion bundling these cuts alongside preannounced funding on the fair cost of care and better care fund shows the Government simply are not serious about improving and investing in social care.”
The 2021 white paper also promised to invest at least £150 million in digitisation across the sector. The Department of Health and Social Care said the figure is now £100 million as £50 million has already been spent.
There was also no mention of the previously announced £25 million to support unpaid carers or the £300 million funding to improve the supply of supported housing.
Boris Johnson promised to “fix the social care crisis once and for all” in his first speech on the steps of Downing Street after becoming prime minister in 2019.
Since then care providers have withdrawn from much of the country and two years later Age UK found a record 1.4 million requests for elderly care had been turned down by local authorities in England.
Mr Johnson’s plan for a “care cap” of costs at £86,000 - which many pointed out would see the less well off lose a greater proportion of their life savings - has been put on hold by Rishi Sunak.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said the Government's halving of promised social care workforce funding in England is a "betrayal on so many fronts".
Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to Burnley College, Mr Starmer said: "I think this is a betrayal from the Government of older people and of those with needs in social care."
He said the Government was "delivering almost nothing" and the failure to solve social care was causing a "huge impact" on the NHS backlog.
"So this is a betrayal on so many fronts," he added.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “This is a disaster for older and disabled people who rely on social care and for care providers struggling to recruit and retain staff.
“The latest in a long line of 13 years of broken promises.
“No wonder the Conservatives have put this out during recess. Shameless and shameful.”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said: “Elderly and disabled people will be the victims of the Conservatives’ decision to slash funding for recruiting care workers at a time of chronic staff shortages.
“By damaging social care again, Rishi Sunak is also damaging our NHS. Patients stuck in hospital will face more delays in discharge, leading to longer delays in A&E and for operations. Only the Conservatives could damage people’s care and the nation’s health at the same time.”
Health Minister Helen Whately said: “Care depends completely on the people who do the caring.
“That’s over a million care staff working in care homes and agencies, and countless relatives, friends and volunteers, acting out of the kindness of their hearts.
“That’s why this package of reforms focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves, while also focusing on the better use of technology, the power of data and digital care records, and extra funding for councils, aiming to make a care system we can be proud of.”
