Social care is one of the biggest long-term challenges facing our country. Last week, we brought together MPs from 5 parties, charities and health organisations to discuss how we can finally build the cross-party consensus that we need.

Working together where we agree, we can achieve more. That’s why we invited the Government and opposition parties to start the cross-party negotiations. 950 of you wrote letters to your MPs to remind them to attend!

We know the social care system has been struggling for a long-time, and the coronavirus outbreak is putting even more strain on the system. We owe it to the care workers who keep the system going, and the patients that they look after, to work together to solve this crisis.

Representations were made by the following organisations:

Nuffield Trust, Care UK, Age UK, Local Government Association, ADASS, Royal College of Nursing, CarersUK, Care and Support Alliance, Macmillan Cancer Support, MS Society, Legal & General, National Association of Care and Support Workers and Institute for Government.

Key Points

We a comprehensive reform of the social care system. As important as funding is, it’s important to consider what we use that for: what is our vision for the system?

We want a system which:

• Is consistent and fair
  • Many in the sector said that the eligibility criteria receiving care are too narrow and inconsistent across the country
• Is clear about what is on offer so that people can plan ahead
  • This includes making the system accessible and easier to understand
• Is stable
  • Currently, care homes are closing rapidly and our workforce has a devastatingly low rate of recruitment and retention
• Is sustainable
  • Prevention was one of the keywords of the meeting
  • We need to design a social care system which works alongside our other systems – in particular, the NHS
  • Unpaid carers and the vital work they do needs to be recognised

In coming months, we’ll also start hosting weekly ‘Social Care Surgeries’ between small groups of MPs and the sector, to help them get to grips with the details of the issue.

One of the biggest issues at the moment is access to workers, so we’re talking to MPs about the option of a new migrant worker route specifically for care workers, so the sector has the workers it needs in the short-term, while we train a new generation of social care workers in the UK.