A Chingford adult home care provider has expressed concern over the impact Labour’s Autumn Budget will have on the sector.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the budget on 30 October, pledging to increase Government spending by around 2% of GDP a year on average over the next five years.
With half of the increase being funded by tax rises, including a 1.2% increase in employer National Insurance, and the NHS being exempt, many private businesses within the social care sector, such as care homes and GP surgeries, are unsure about their future.
Director of Radfield Home Care Chingford and Loughton Adam Simons said on social media: “Labour’s first budget in 14 years could turn out to be a complete disaster for the care sector.
“The budget is going to have a huge impact on social care, affecting the most vulnerable people in this country.”
While the NHS is set to receive a £22.6billion investment over the next two years, Simons believes that the social care sector is being neglected completely.
His concerns lie primarily with local authority contracts that are tendered by external care companies, who often go for the lowest price thus reducing the quality of care.
Although Radfield Home Care only takes private clients, they may still have to increase their fees.
Simons believes that if Radfield had a local authority contract they wouldn’t be able to break even, as he said they cannot operate to the standards they do without their rates.
He said: “The NHS can’t be fixed without social care being fixed.
“There seems to be double standards.
“There’s a lot of press about zero- hours contracts and care workers not being paid fairly, and then on the other side of it, you have local authorities that are tending contracts at a price where the economics don’t make sense.
“By tending contracts at the lowest price and increases in National Insurance in the budget, it encourages some care providers to cut corners to operate.”
Simons explained how only making the NHS exempt doesn’t work, as social care works hand in hand with it.
When a patient wants to leave hospital, they are given six weeks of re-enablement care provided by local authorities as part of their contract.
Therefore, patients normally cannot leave hospital until necessary care is put in place.
If adult social care doesn’t have the funds to care for the patients, then they won’t be able to leave hospital, leaving both the NHS and social care stuck.
Simons said: “Social care, at the moment, doesn’t work.
“It’s a black hole right now.”
He hopes that neglecting the social care sector is just an oversight of the government and that they will change their minds.
Simons said: “I’m hoping it’s just been ill thought out rather than they did understand what was going on and are hoping they can just push it through.”
Social care secretary Wes Streeting was recently questioned in debate with MP Luke Evans about whether care homes would be exempt from the tax increase.
Claiming they are aware of the pressures, Streeting said: “ We have not made allocations for the year ahead, and I will take those representations very seriously.”
Picture credit: Free to use from Unsplash
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