Skills for Care annual report on adult social care sector

Responding to Skills for Care’s annual report on the state of the adult social care sector and workforce, Matthew Taylor chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:

"Health leaders up and down the country will be concerned with the new figures that have been released. NHS leaders will agree that extra investment in social care, particularly in social care pay to drive recruitment and retention in a system that has at least 165,000 vacancies, will be one of the best and most effective actions that could be taken to reduce pressure on the NHS and fill vacant positions.

“Providers are worried that they will not see any of the Discharge to Assess Funding to invest in recruitment. This is an opportunity for the government to clarify where we stand with the Secretary of State’s promised £500 million adult social care discharge fund and who will pay for this additional funding, given the NHS’s finances are already so squeezed.

“With such extreme financial pressures facing both the NHS and social care, coupled with a cost-of-living crisis hitting health service staff and patients, and with no sign of a fully funded workforce plan for the health service, the government must do all it can to clarify their position and provide investment in social care to reduce pressures on the NHS.”