National Insurance hike ‘not enough’ to fund social care, say industry body

Care England, the largest representative body for social care providers, has stated that the government’s Health and Social Care Levy, to be rolled our from today, will not deliver the appropriate amount of additional funding to stabilise the adult social care sector.

From today, the Health and Social Care Levy will come into effect and begin to raise billions to help tackle the Covid backlogs and reform the adult social care system.

According to the government’s announcement today, over the next three years, a record £39 billion will be invested in the health and social care system to ensure it has the long-term resource it needs to provide world-class care, while delivering the biggest catch-up programme in the NHS’ history.

If no further funding is provisioned from October 2023, the scale of financial deficit borne by adult social care providers could range from £0.41bn to £1.303bn up to 4 times more than has been made available by government currently, a deficit incapable of being absorbed by both councils and care homes from October 2023. The LaingBuisson central estimate assumes a 50% take-up of Section 18(3) and would require an additional £0.85bn of funding by Government.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said in light of today’s news: “This new Levy was billed as providing extra resources for social care, but in truth, it will not even touch the sides of the need in our sector, and the majority of the money will go to the NHS. The social care sector has been subjected to years of underfunding destabilising the financial sustainability of the sector. This has only been exacerbated by the Covid pandemic. The pretence that this money generated by the Levy is going to solve the social care funding crisis is nothing more than a confidence trick played on the public. Care England is calling for at least half the money generated through the Levy to go into social care in order to stabilise the system and give our dedicated staff significant increases in their pay and conditions.”

Green added: “Based upon the current funding arrangements, the health service will not see the benefits of a strong social care sector and will continue to feel these unnecessary pressures, fuelling an expensive NHS-centric cycle of acute care.”