BASW General Election Blog: Time to properly fund social work & social care

We need a bigger pot to properly fund Social Care and Social Work. 

At the time of writing, neither of the two parties vying to form the next government have talked about social care in this General Election campaign, even less about the funding needed to remake this as an important social service.

Is this too big a thorn to grasp for what is increasingly a Cinderella service, hidden by likely tax cuts and the demands of other services? Particularly, in the next few years, the Military? Is there any interest at all that the basic organisational structures of the personal social services seem to be falling away?

According to a Local Government Information Unit survey, half of councils in England (and some in Scotland) believe they are likely to apply for s.114 status (‘Bankruptcy’) in the next five years. With that will go a significant amount of current adult and children social care funding. 

Seven councils have already gone down that road, including Birmingham and Nottingham. In Birmingham, this has meant cuts of £115million in Children’s Services and £77million in Adult Services over two years, while they have to pay £100k a month for the parachuted Government Commissioners.

And yet it’s clear that, far from further cuts, big increases are necessary. The Health Foundation has identified that we need, just for Adult Social Care, between a 3.4% and 6% increase above inflation, or between £8.3Billion and £18.4 Billion, depending on how far we want to meet future demand and improve access. 

New funding has been nothing like this. The £1.74Billion agreed in 2021, according to the National Audit Office, turned into only £729million in practice, and much of that was used for pay awards. In Children’s Services, Josh McAlister’s review identified a need for £2.6 Billion as against the £200mill agreed. It will be interesting to see Josh”s actions if he gets elected as a Labour MP in Cumbria and Labour are elected to Government.

Both Labour and the Conservatives seem to want to encourage private sector involvement, yet even the Competition and Markets Authority has questioned the high profitability, particularly amongst the Venture Capital Companies that own much of the children’s social care sector. Yes, I know many social workers now work in the Private Sector, particularly in Private sector Fostering Agencies, but it’s questionable whether they, rather than the Venture Capitalists, really benefit from the high level of profit. Meanwhile, the bankruptcy of councils threatens directly provided resources that still exist.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has identified that Sure Start funding has decreased by two thirds since the change of government in 2010, with over 1340 centres closing. Their 2024 study identified major GCSE and SEND improvements for those who attended in their first five years, particularly for those from poorer and non-white backgrounds. They reckon for every £1 spent, there were £1.09 of benefits. The growing numbers of children in the care system, with preventative alternatives difficult to engage, suggest that the Sure Start cuts have been a major backwards move.

Labour seems to be moving to the Fabians/Unison idea of a National Care service for England, an idea already controversial in Scotland. The idea of locally provided services seems key to good social work, but there seems to be some sort of ‘postcode lottery’ across councils. Will a National Care Service or even (with the growing cross support for Regional Mayors) new Regional Social Work outfits be on the cards?

Richard Servian, Black Country BASW Branch