Scarborough Care Home Boss Writes Open Letter to Prime Minister

A Scarborough Social Care leader has written an open letter to the Prime Minister, urging him to end the scandal of 1.6m older, vulnerable and disabled people being forced to live without the care they need.

Mike Padgham, who chairs the provider organisation, The Independent Care Group (ICG), said:

“Enough is enough. Too many people are living without the care they need to enjoy a decent quality of life and that is a scandal that shames us as a country.

“It is time that the new Government acknowledged that there is a problem and showed that they intend to so something about it.”

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Padgham invites Sir Keir Starmer and his health and social care team to sit down with social care providers and seek solutions to the current crisis.

And he urges the Prime Minister to spare the sector further cuts in the much-feared October budget but instead be as bold in his reform of social care as Nye Bevan was when he set up the NHS, in 1948.

In the letter, Mr Padgham writes:

“Without proper support for social care and the creation of a sector that can offer care, when and where it is needed, the NHS will stay on its knees.

“There are 1.6m people who cannot get the care they need and many thousands in hospital because there is no social care available for them. This is our mothers and fathers, our aunts and uncles, brothers, sisters and friends. This is a scandal that shames us as a country. For too long those who benefit from social care and those who provide it have waited patiently in the queue for our turn, but that turn never comes.

“We must switch resources from the NHS into social care to pay staff properly and fill the 131,000 staff vacancies to give care to those who can’t access it and to free up hospital beds. This would eventually save the NHS money.”

Mr Padgham says the social care sector was disappointed that Labour went back on a pre-election promise to introduce the cap on social care costs but was still prepared to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt, provided it showed some signs of introducing reform.

In a recent speech, Mr Starmer said the country had to face some short-term pain for long term good, but in his letter Mr Padgham adds:

“…social care has suffered long term pain with no sign of any good. The sector has suffered 30 years of cuts with the result that it is now in crisis. People clapped for social care workers as they fought alongside their NHS counterparts to contain Covid-19. But where is their reward for doing that, for not going on strike when others did and for looking after our most vulnerable?”

Mr Padgham says social care providers are eager to discuss solutions with the Government, adding:

“We know government alone cannot solve all the issues. The social care sector has a wealth of knowledge, experience and practical solutions to put at the government’s disposal and stands ready to offer support. You have shown with your appointment of James Timpson to the post of prisons minister that you can take a creative approach to finding solutions. I suggest you look at something similar for social care and begin change swiftly to restore confidence.”

 
The letter in full:

Dear Prime Minister,

We are now more than 50 days into your government and, whilst still early, those of us delivering care to our oldest and most vulnerable have found little to cheer as yet. The decision, within days of being elected, to axe the proposed cap on care costs, did not give us optimism.
It is too early to condemn, and the social care sector continues to give your government the benefit of the doubt. But we need to see some positive signs.

In your speech this week you talked about serving the people who serve their communities and your hopes for an NHS “not just back on its feet, but fit for the future”.

But where was the action to look after many hundreds of thousands of older, vulnerable and disabled adults who are currently not getting the care they need?

And where was the promise to reform social care and properly reward our hard-working staff who serve their community but have not seen their pay rise significantly in years?

Without proper support for social care and the creation of a sector that can offer care, when and where it is needed, the NHS will stay on its knees.

There are 1.6m people who cannot get the care they need and many thousands in hospital because there is no social care available for them.

This is our mothers and fathers, our aunts and uncles, brothers, sisters and friends. This is a scandal that shames us as a country. For too long those who benefit from social care and those who provide it have waited patiently in the queue for our turn, but that turn never comes.
We must switch resources from the NHS into social care to pay staff properly and fill the 131,000 staff vacancies; to give care to those who can’t access it and to free up hospital beds. This would eventually save the NHS money.

You spoke of short-term pain for long term good. Well social care has suffered long term pain with no sign of any good. The sector has suffered 30 years of cuts with the result that it is now in crisis. People clapped for social care workers as they fought alongside their NHS counterparts to contain Covid-19. But where is their reward for doing that, for not going on strike when others did and for looking after our most vulnerable?
We know government alone cannot solve all the issues. The social care sector has a wealth of knowledge, experience and practical solutions to put at the government’s disposal and stands ready to offer support. You have shown with your appointment of James Timpson to the post of prisons minister that you can take a creative approach to finding solutions. I suggest you look at something similar for social care and begin change swiftly to restore confidence.

Our plea to you now, as you prepare for what you say will be an austere October budget, is to spare us any further cuts – local authorities, who commission the bulk of care, cannot take any more.  Instead, invest in social care. Be as bold as Nye Bevan was in 1948, create the National Care Service straight away, bringing NHS and social care together to get care to those who need it, properly reward and recognise our social care workforce and create a sector that is fit for purpose and that can proudly provide proper, cradle to the grave care. And this needs to happen now, not wait for any lengthy and unnecessary royal commissions when we already know what needs to be done.

I have written to you and to your Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, raising these issues with you and I repeat my invitation to meet, either in Westminster or here in North Yorkshire, to discuss them further, at your earliest convenience.
 
Mike Padgham
Chair
Independent Care Group.