Doing nothing on social care is untenable, MPs warn

A failure to fix England’s social care system is costing the country in financial and human terms, cross-party MPs have warned.

Doing nothing to reform social care for older and disabled adults is an “active” and “untenable” decision, according to a report from Health and Social Care Select Committee.

It says successive governments have put too much emphasis on the cost of reforming the system, and future plans will be doomed to fail unless the government understands and measures the “cost of inaction”.

The government, which has set up an independent commission which has just started work, said it had “hit the ground running” but acknowledged there was “much more to do”.

“Taxpayers are currently paying £32 billion a year for a broken system” propped up by contributions from unpaid carers “equivalent to a second NHS”, the report said.

The committee found that social care is consuming an increasing proportion of councils’ budgets, crowding out spending on other services.

It added that social care makes up an integral part of the government’s NHS reforms and cannot be a separate process.

Aside from improving the quality of care for people in need, the report found that investment in the system could also help drive economic growth.

The report said that an extra £1 billion spent on social care would create 50,000 jobs across the country, and that every £1 invested would generate a £1.75 return to the wider economy.

The committee also highlighted a lack of available data into the system, and called for the government to publish annual assessments of the level of unmet care needs for adults, as well as an annual estimates into how much delayed discharges are costing the NHS.

Its report comes as an independent commission into adult social care chaired by Baroness Louise Casey begins its work. Its first report is due next year, with a final report due in 2028.

The government said it was grateful for the committee’s work and would respond formally in due course.

“Far from inaction, this government has hit the ground running on social care,” said Stephen Kinnock, minister of state for care.

“A lot has been done, but we know there is so much more to do and deep reform is needed,” he said.