A report by the Fabian Society thinktank, which was requested by the shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, and commissioned by the trade union Unison, has set out a new "roadmap" for a national care service (NCS) that is hoped would address the "existing patchy, impersonal and inadequate state provision".
Disability Rights UK and Inclusion London were amongst the organisations invited to the report's launch. We heard from the report's authors, Ben Cooper, Andrew Harrop and Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, and Christina McAnea, the General Secretary of Unison, the Public Service Union, who commissioned the report.
The report, of which a summary and easy read version are available to download at the bottom of this page, outlined ten principles (and 47 policy suggestions) that it states would fulfil the criteria for a "National Care Service". The principles are:
1. Choice and control for individuals and their families
2. Local and place-based
3. Nationally consistent
4. Accessible
5. For everyone
6. Preventative
7. Relationship-based
8. Rights-based
9. High quality and diverse
10. Connected
The report also proposes care workers get parity with equivalent skilled staff in the NHS on pay bands, pension entitlements and employment terms over time, starting with the lowest paid. The report contains a "block" of recommendations around co-production with "care users". It recommends that Labour embed co-production into the development of the National Care Service using deliberative techniques involving those with lived experience to design the new system.
It also recommends the creation of co-production and accountability mechanisms at national level with a new co-production duty for ministers and an independent scrutiny, evidence and engagement body led by people who require support and carers.
The report does not recommend ending care charging for Disabled people, instead recommending that a National Care Service "progressively introduce further charging reforms in the years that follow ideally with a pre-announced timetable".
The report specifically stresses that the "dismal state of the nation’s finances" means changes will have to be staggered – with bigger spending commitments on hold until the economy recovers. It does not give a figure for how much the new service for England would cost but says an independent assessment of cost pressures in adult social care at the time should inform this.
Mikey Erhardt, Campaigns and Policy Officer at Disability Rights UK said: "For many of us, the social care system is central to enabling us to live independent, fulfilling, active lives we have a right to. We deserve choice and control over the care and support we need. Care and support should enable us to learn, work, have fun and make social connections.
At a time when local authorities up and down the country are cutting budgets, pressuring Disabled people into accepting lower entitlements, and slashing service provision, the report offers some exciting potential solutions.
Hearing few actual commitments from the shadow Health Secretary when he spoke at the launch wasn't very reassuring. Despite promising that a Labour government would co-produce any policies affecting Disabled people, there are clear gaps between his rhetoric and the demands of Disabled people in receipt of care.
Wes Streeting spoke about how those who rely on care "cannot afford delays" anymore. Yet without any spending commitments, and with no promises to end the scandal of social care charging, we are concerned that Disabled people are in for more years of dangerous status quo in social care."