A new report from the Health and Social Care Committee says the Government must measure the true cost of inaction to be able to present a robust financial case for reforms of the system.

Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, Layla Moran, said: ‘The Department of Health and Social Care needs to commission research on the costs that the NHS and the wider economy are bearing as a result of failures in adult social care. Unless the Government measures the true cost of inaction and can make a convincing case to the Treasury, the recommended reforms that come out of the Casey Commission will be doomed to fail.'

The report argues the Government does not know what the potential monetary benefits of a reformed system might be and cannot assess which social care reform interventions would result in the highest returns.  

The committee highlights ‘the Government and taxpayers are currently paying £32bn a year for a broken system', despite the heroic efforts of unpaid carers providing care worth £184bn a year.

It warns social care is taking up an increasingly high proportion of councils' spending and crowding out spending on other services.

The report urges Baroness Casey to set out the immediate steps that the Government needs to take to ensure the adult social care sector can play its vital part in the three shifts for NHS reform.   

It finds that every £1 invested in the sector would generate a £1.75 return to the wider economy and that an extra £1bn spent on social care would create 50,000 jobs across the country.  

Reaction

Nuffield Trust deputy director of policy, Natasha Curry, said: ‘With the terms of reference for the Casey Commission now set out, there is an opportunity to confront and address inadequacies and dysfunctions in this integral system.'

Rory Deighton, acute director at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘If the NHS is to continue improving performance then we also need to see a solution to challenges in social care. Low pay and long hours have led to huge gaps in social care staffing, with more and more providers closing, feeding instability into a struggling system.'

Isabel Lawicka, director of policy and strategy, NHS Providers – who gave evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee - said: ‘The MPs' hard-hitting report lays bare the cost of successive governments dodging difficult decisions on social care reform. They highlight the impact of this on people receiving care, those providing it and the impact on wider health and care services. The cost and consequences of inaction are plain to see.'

Director of policy at The Health Foundation, Hugh Alderwick, said: ‘Louise Casey's first act was to meet people with lived experience of the current system, so she will have already heard first hand the urgent need for reform. We encourage her to move as quickly as possible to make recommendations to government and hold ministers to account for taking the action their predecessors have dodged.

Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the LGA's Community and Wellbeing Board, said: ‘This intervention comes at a helpful time, just as the commission gets underway, and we support many of the recommendations it makes, especially around workforce and pay, unpaid carers, overall funding and stability.  

‘This needs to be accompanied by an acceleration in the pace of change – while it's right not to rush this – 10 years is an incredibly long time to wait for the reform.'

 

Minister of State for Care Stephen Kinnock said: ‘Baroness Casey's independent commission is a once in a generation opportunity to transcend party politics and build consensus on the future of adult social care.

‘As we build an NHS fit for the future through our Plan for Change, we are shifting more care into the community - and we cannot succeed in this mission without transforming social care.

‘This Government is grasping the nettle on social care reform, and I am delighted that Baroness Casey – one of our country's leading public service reformers – is taking forward this work.

 

‘Meanwhile we are taking immediate action including a £3.7bn funding boost to support social care authorities, money for an extra 15,000 home adaptations for disabled people, the biggest uplift to the Carer's Allowance threshold since the 1970s, and the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to boost recruitment and retention in the workforce.'