The National Care Forum (NCF) – the leading association for not-for-profit social care has responded to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Yvette Cooper’s party conference speech.  

Liz Jones, Deputy CEO and Policy Director at NCF commented: “We’re delighted that measures to strengthen workforce stability and improve the experience of care workers at both the beginning and end of their careers, featured prominently in Yvette Cooper’s speech to the Labour party conference today. 

“We welcome the government’s intention to implement an adult social care workforce plan. We would urge government to build on the fully formed adult social care workforce strategy which was coordinated by Skills for Care and developed in co-production with the entire sector. This strategy includes recommendations that are already driving progress to improve care workforce sustainability. 

“It is gratifying to see government getting behind moves to attract more young people into careers in care. We support the outlined plans for work academy programmes that will signpost opportunities for job seekers looking for professional pathways to enable their talents and passions to flourish. This programme will need to be fully resourced, and its success will rely on government drawing on insights and experiences from care providers. Funding should also be allocated to recompense providers for any employment schemes they are expected to support to help map clear routes that will enable new joiners to start work well. 

“We also welcome the announcement of a national collective pension scheme for care workers, to sit alongside the Fair Pay Agreement. However, if this results in increased employer pension contributions, providers will require additional funding to ensure they are not left out of pocket.  We hope this measure will improve financial security in retirement for care workers who have worked tirelessly, in many cases dedicating their whole careers, to support other people. 

“We await further details to flesh out these proposals, but coupled with the Prime Minister’s announcements yesterday, it’s good to see the adult social care sector positioned front and centre of government plans and we’re keen to support the work in getting these measures successfully embedded.”