The National Care Forum (NCF) – the leading association for not-for-profit social care has issued a response to the announcement by Minister for Care, Stephen Kinnock that the Adult Social Care Training and Development Fund will not be introduced as planned. 

Vic Rayner OBE, CEO of NCF commented: “The announcement yesterday comes as a further blow to adult social care. Cutting the limited funding that was set aside for training and upskilling workers is short-sighted and risks undermining the purported focus on the economic contribution of the sector. Hot on the heels of the Commons statement by the Chancellor scrapping the charging reforms appears to provide a strong indication that the government has yet to recognise the fundamental role that social care plays in each and every community across the country.  

“Just over two weeks ago the sector provided a comprehensive workforce strategy bringing together the voices of people receiving care and support, the workforce, local government, providers and health colleagues. It recognised the needs of the the care workforce, which is made up of 1.6 million skilled and professional staff who deliver a vital public service. The strategy had been developed following the value for money report issued in November by the National Audit Office which rightly criticised the previous government for extensive delays in workforce reform. Yet despite this backdrop of both future focus and critique of delay, in the blink of an eye even these massively delayed commitments to enhance the funding for training the sector workforce have been taken off the table. 

“Everyone passionate about social care must continue to press Labour on their commitment to support the adult social care workforce as indicated in the ministerial statement yesterday and urge them to bring forward plans for improvement to care worker pay.  

“NCF reiterate our offer of support and stand ready to work with the new government on measures which will create better parity between NHS roles and the equivalents in social care. We need to urgently see a change of course as all indications sadly still show a universal underappreciation of this important workforce and the vital role they play in our country’s infrastructure.”