Brexit ‘collapse’ warning for social care system

A new report by IPPR has suggested that there must be a radical change in workforce strategy if the UK is to attract 1.6 million health and social care workers up to 2022.

The think tank argues that an ambitious workforce strategy is necessary to tackle longstanding challenges with poor working conditions and sub-standard care in their report Care in a post-Brexit climate.

Approximately 60,000 social care workers are EU migrants. With the uncertainty of EU workers ability to work in the sector post-Brexit, IPPR warn that this will form a less reliable source of labour. Furthermore, the report says that the UK will need to recruit 1.6 million low-skills health and social care workers, two-thirds of the current workforce up to 2022, larger than any other occupation in the UK.

Alongside extra funding, IPPR urges that effective minimum standards are created for training and qualifications to push up the quality of social care, as well as better conditions for workers and an industrial strategy for care with a new focus on innovation.

Clare McNeil, IPPR associate director for families and work, said: “Social care services will need to change drastically in order to deal with the growing demand for adult care services due to our ageing population and a post-Brexit migration system.

“These challenges cannot be addressed without a sustainable funding solution for social care, for example by raising National Insurance (NI) contributions for employees and employers by one per cent. Persistent underfunding in the adult social care sector has led to a reliance on a low-paid, often poorly trained workforce, with care workers some of the lowest paid workers in the country.

“The sector will have a huge challenge on its hands to recruit enough workers to keep pace with demand, particularly with expected lower levels of migration. We are calling for a radical change in workforce strategy - both to improve working conditions to attract more workers and to raise standards in the sector.”