Care group says new National Care Service would set social care on 'par with NHS'

The Independent Care Group (ICG) has welcomed the Labour Party’s proposals to create a new National Care Service that will include “national standards for care users” and “better pay and conditions” for care workers.

In an interview with The Guardian, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the Labour Party has reaffirmed its intention to create a free-at-the-point-of-entry National Care Service and said he would love to see a national care service delivered “exactly” on the same terms as the NHS, “publicly owned, publicly funded and free at the point of use” but warned “we” would have to be “honest” regarding the “scale of the challenge” and said the starting point would be to deliver “national standards for care users” and “better pay and conditions” for care workers.

The ICG chair Mike Padgham has welcomed the proposals and said a National Care Service is something the ICG has “campaigned for now for some 20 years or more” and said it would “set social care provision on a par with NHS care and create cradle to the grave care in this country."

He said: “I agree any such service must place the status and recognition of the social care workforce at its heart. There must also be room for public, private and charitable provision through small and larger providers, to ensure choice.”

The idea of a National Care Service was first developed in the final year of the last Labour government. In a 2009 green paper, Labour proposed a service that would deliver: prevention services; national assessment; a joined- service; information and advice; personalised care and support; and fair funding. The service was to be universal, fair and affordable, helping everyone who needed care and support.

Mr Padgham added: “At the end of the day, this is an opposition party proposal and dependent upon the Labour Party gaining power for its fruition.

“But it is good to have the idea become part of the conversation around care, even if it is short on detailed proposals at this stage.”

The Fabian Society which is working with the Labour Party on the plans, say the transformation of adult social care is likely to need to be achieved gradually over time. A ‘big bang’ reform would be destabilising for staff and service users, and would not be affordable in the short term.

Fabian Society general secretary Andrew Harrop said: “The Fabians first called for a national healthcare service in 1911 and then played an instrumental role in the development of the NHS.

“We are delighted to be working on plans to develop a national care service for England based on the spirit of those past reforms.

"We will present practical, workable proposals to gradually develop national entitlements, standards and funding models that will support the integration of social care with healthcare and are designed around local accountability and individual preferences and needs.”

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