Social care reform funding halved for England, government confirms

Funding promised to develop the social care workforce in England has been halved, the government has confirmed.

In 2021 the government pledged "at least" £500 million for reforms, to be spent on training places and technology over three years.

But that figure is now £250 million, according to the Department of Health.

The government said its reforms would give care "the status it deserves" but some organisations in the sector say they fall short of what is needed.

Measures outlined in the government's white paper on social care, published in December 2021, include the creation of a new Care Certificate qualification and funding for hundreds of thousands of training places.

The document also outlines plans to speed up digitising social care records and make better use of technology such as smart speakers and sensors.

The government has said its refreshed plan will bolster the workforce and help free up hospital beds.

But the money allocated to the reforms is now just half of what was put forward in 2021.

The white paper also promised to invest at least £150 million in digitisation across the sector, but the Department of Health and Social Care said the figure is now £100 million as £50 million has already been spent.

There has also been no mention of the previously announced £25 million to support unpaid carers or the £300 million mentioned in the white paper to integrate housing into local health and care strategies.

Social care minister Helen Whately said the package announced on Tuesday "focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves".

She said the reforms focused on the "better use of technology, the power of data and digital care records, and extra funding for councils - aiming to make a care system we can be proud of".

The Department for Health and Social Care insists that all the promised money will stay within social care and that it has yet to allocate the full budget.

But the King's Fund health think tank said the measures were "a dim shadow of the widescale reform to adult social care that this government came into office promising" while Age UK described them as not being "remotely enough to transform social care".

A report from Care England and the HfT care provider in March warned that adult social care was "on the precipice" when it came to costs.

The low level of pay for care staff was considered the biggest barrier to recruitment and retention, the report said.