An important select committee in Parliament has reported on the challenges councils face over social care.
The report is yet more evidence of government failure on social care.
Research has shown that the underfunding of social care is hitting the care work force with nearly half of all care staff on zero-hours contracts and hundreds of thousands of them scandalously earning less than the living wage.
And as the cuts to budgets bite, we are seeing the number of people caring for family and friends unpaid going up faster than population growth. This can be bad for the family carers and can put great strain on families.
Cllr Stephen Morgan, Portsmouth’s Labour Leader, said:
“With less than 10 per cent of directors of adult social care confident they will be able to fulfil their statutory duty to provide care this coming year, it’s clear that the government simply has not done enough to give social care the funding it needs.
The government should listen to what councils are saying and respond to this helpful select committee report. Ministers must make sure that their upcoming Green Paper does not rule any future funding options out.
We need social care to be put on a long term sustainable financial footing and we need an end to this on-going funding crisis.”
In February, Portsmouth Labour found alternative savings at the city council to help protect and invest in social care services in Portsmouth in its fairer budget proposals.
