They say a week is a long time in poiitics, well it's certainly been an interesting week politically for Social Care and it's only Wednesday!
We rarely struggle each week to find items for our newsletter and this week the announcement on the findings into the shortcoming of CQC seemed to be a natural headline.
I don't think any of us in the sector were surprised at the report, particularly coming after Kate Terroni's extraordinary mea culpa last week (although that in itself was very surprising). All of us know that the roll out of the Single Assessment Framework and the much vaunted 'new way of working' has been a disaster, it didn't need a government report to confirm what we already know. It will be interesting to see what happens next, in fact I wonder whether CQC will survive in its current form. Read CQC's response to the interim findings of the Dash Review.
This in itself would be a worthy news headline but the Chancellor Rachel Reeves surprised us all with the announcement that the government would not be proceeding with the recommendations of the Dilnot report as we cannot afford it. Coming as it did in the same announcement as public sector wage increases - particularly within the NHS - many of us in the sector will feel that once again Social Care - long the Cinderella in the relationship with health - has once again been overlooked by government, and a new government at that.
I don't think any of us were expecting much during the early stages of this new government, their mainifesto pledges for Social Care were delightfully vague but as ever with a change of adminstration there was an optimism which I hope does not end up being misplaced. They have talked about a National Care Service but no one knows what that actually means or what it will look like. My own thoughts are that it will not happen in the life of this parliament as there are too many other things occupying minds in Westminster.
So hold the presses we thought, we need to change our headline, then suprise, Stephen Kinnock the new Minister for Care announced that the Adult Social Care Training and Devlopment Fund announced by the previous government was being cancelled. Although he promised there will be funding for training it will be much reduced and we don't know when it will be released, therefore producing further uncertainty for the sector.
Are there any positives we can report this week? Maybe. It has been announced that the Select Committee on Adult Social Care will be chaired by the Lib Dems. Of all the parties manifestos, the Lib Dems had the most comprehensive proposals for the sector and indeed Ed Davey emerged as a vocal champion based on his own experiences.
So this has definitely turned into a long week!
Keiron Broadbent
Chief Executive Officer
West Midlands Care Association
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