Social care could be a significant source of new decent jobs
The trustees at Cranleigh Village Health Trust (CVHT) have worked tirelessly since the charity was formed in 2001, campaigning for the return of community beds in the village.
CVHT aims to achieve this community bed objective through the current planning proposal for incorporating 16 such beds within a new 64-bed care home.
We are awaiting planning consent from Waverley Borough Council, a result that would also create 65 full-time equivalent jobs in the village.
The TUC has published a report (Monday, 7th September 2020) which suggests that social care could be a significant source of new decent jobs following the pandemic.
With the UK economy facing a prolonged recession and a large number of job losses, the adult social care sector offers quality employment opportunities.
The TUC’s new analysis found that adult social care spending by local authorities in England is still £600 million a year lower than it was a decade ago.
112 of the 150 responsible local authorities are spending less on social care per head of population than they were back in 2010.
In the South East of England, local authority spending on social care is 5% lower than it was ten years ago.
Today’s TUC report, Fixing social care: better quality services and jobs, sets out why the UK does not have a high-quality social care system, and how to improve it for those who use it, and those who work in it.
The TUC concludes that social care in England has insufficient funding to meet demand, and therefore councils are tightening their eligibility criteria which force more people to rely on informal care from family and friends.
They also found that local authorities will be unable to meet future demand for adult social care, with a 49% increase in demand forecast for those aged 65 and over by 2040.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:
When the country needed them, social care workers stepped up. Care workers looked after older and disabled people in the midst of a pandemic, often without the right PPE, and often for low wages and no sick pay.
Now it’s time to fix the broken system. Social care is badly underfunded. As we face mass unemployment, ministers should act to unlock the 120,000 existing social care vacancies right now. And they should put investment in social care at the heart of our national recovery plan.
Social care jobs should be decent jobs on fair pay, at the heart of every community. The TUC’s plan sets out how a full funding settlement for social care would work. Ministers can’t spend another decade hiding from the social care crisis.
