Our response to the Social Care White Paper

The Government's White Paper on Adult Social Care, published in December 2021, contains some positive elements but leaves major questions unanswered.

The White Paper sets out positive ambitions for the future of social care in England, looking beyond a narrow focus on capping costs, and setting out a long-term vision for more flexible and better integrated services. It focuses on three primary ambitions: choice, control and support for people to live independent lives; access to personalised, high-quality care and support; and fairness and accessibility.

Among the positive elements of the White Paper is its focus on integration across health, social care and housing services. It is essential that services work together to provide coordinated and holistic support, particularly for people living with complex conditions such as MND. We are pleased to see a clear recognition that safe and accessible housing is essential to maintaining good health and wellbeing, and we welcome the new funding to support closer integration approach across health, social care and housing services.

We particularly welcome the government’s plans to introduce higher maximum grants for home adaptations and review the disabled facilities grant means test, as we called for in our #ActToAdapt campaign. This has the potential to support more people living with MND to remain in their own home by expanding access to necessary home adaptations.

In addition, it is positive to see the White Paper acknowledge the crucial role played by unpaid carers. However, the ambition to support carers more effectively, while welcome, is not underpinned by significant funding. Rather than funding small pilot projects, the Government should ensure that all carers across the country receive the support and respite that they deserve.

More broadly, it is not at all clear that the levels of funding committed to the White Paper proposals so far will be sufficient to address the major issues affecting the delivery of social care services. Significant new funding is required to address longstanding issues affecting the delivery of social care services, including a failing provider market, staff recruitment and retention issues, and narrow eligibility criteria restricting access to support.

The White Paper's workforce strategy notably fails to address the issue of low pay. Without additional support to address levels of pay in the sector, the ongoing shortage of care staff is likely to continue. Similarly, the White Paper's proposals do little to expand eligibility for support and provide access to funded social care to the millions of adults, both working-age and older, whose needs are currently unmet.

In order to realise the vision set out in the White Paper, there is a clear need for significant additional funding to stabilise the provider market, address workforce issues, and improve quality and access to services. Without further investment to deliver a stable and sustainably funded social care system, the Government’s ambitions for social care will be undermined. It is essential the Government now delivers on its promises.

We will continue to work with stakeholders to campaign for an improved social care system. As part of the Care and Support Alliance we are supporting calls for an immediate funding injection into the social care system. We will also work to ensure that the needs of working-age disabled adults, as well as older adults, are addressed through social care reform.