EU know how serious this is for social care!

24th June 2016

NCF Blog by Vic Rayner

Vic Rayner, Executive Director of the National Care Forum on today’s news that Britain is to leave the European Union

Like many of you – I am reeling this morning from the decision by the UK to leave the European Union.

As the campaign trail blazed over recent weeks – the only certain factor seemed that a vote to leave was a vote for the unknown. Well – here we are on the 24th June – absolutely – steadfastly in the unknown! That is a place where no one wants to stay for long – and whilst the political fallout may rage on for weeks and months to come – providers of adult social care need to get their ducks in a row to understand what the implications might be and to work together to influence and mitigate to support our residents and customers, our workforce and our services.

In response to the announcement, I have this morning called for a range of sector leaders and providers to come together to begin to digest the news. Timeframes and implementation will be very uncertain still, but the issues of concern are long term, and we need to begin to draw a line in the sand to understand what we do know and to express what we are most concerned about.

Already members are coming back to me with thoughts about long term issues around workforce including impact on capacity, sustaining a united workforce, dealing with anxieties of European staff and more. There are worries about what this will mean for the ongoing care of residents currently living in Europe, and how existing arrangements around passporting of healthcare costs will be affected. Similarly the anticipated turmoil in the financial markets may impact on future financing and development.

The meeting will take place next Friday and I will be reporting on it to NCF members and the wider sector as soon as possible. I hope that at the very least we can begin to piece together a blueprint to support strategic discussions within your organisations.

Please do contact me with your thoughts about the impact of the UK decision to leave the European Union on the provision of Adult Social Care on [email protected] and I will ensure they are fed into the discussion next Friday.

Vic Rayner

Executive Director

National Care Forum