The government started off the New Year by announcing immediate investment and new reforms to help transform adult social care in England.
Alongside additional funds and reforms to improve outcomes, support the workforce and relieve pressures on the NHS, the government also announced the creation of a new independent commission into adult social care, headed by Baroness Louise Casey.
It is hoped this independent commission will “start a national conversation” and establish cross-party consensus on plans to transform social care.
The government says its new package of support will enable older people to stay out of hospital and live in their own homes independently for longer, while thousands more people with disabilities will receive home adaptations.
Social care reforms will help people to stay out of hospital
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting confirmed the Disabled Facilities Grants would receive an additional £86 million this financial year in addition to the £86 million boost announced for next financial year in the Autumn Budget. This takes the annual total of the grant to £711 million, allowing for 7,800 more disabled and elderly people to make improvements to their homes so that they may live more independent lives and avoid hospitalisation.
The government also plans to utilise social care technology to help transform care and will introduce new national standards to ensure that care providers and families use the best care technology available. This will help ensure people receive “the best possible care in the most appropriate place.”
The plans include a shared digital platform to allow up-to-date medical information to be shared between the NHS and care staff, including when someone last took their medication, to ensure people receive appropriate, high-quality care.
They will also focus on preventative measures to keep people healthy and relieve pressure on the NHS and on improving career progression and development pathways for care workers.
The government says that upskilling the adult social care workforce will help boost morale and improve staff retention, something which is currently a major challenge for the sector. It will also lead to “improved outcomes” for patients.
Social care plans will extend delegation of key healthcare tasks
Part of plans to help relieve pressure on the NHS is enhanced support for care workers to take on further duties to deliver health interventions often carried out by registered nurses, such as blood pressure checks. This would mean people can undergo more routine checks and care at home without visiting healthcare settings.
This means more support for social care workers carrying out delegated healthcare tasks, which are healthcare interventions that are normally carried out by a regulated healthcare professional, such as a nurse, but are transferred to a paid care worker, with support and training provided. Delegated healthcare tasks or activities could include insulin administration, catheter care or PEG feeding.
The delegation of key healthcare activities has been on the rise since the Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdowns, when avoiding unnecessary hospital visits was particularly vital.
Skills for Care have since developed guiding principles (revised November 2024) for delegated healthcare tasks and they are widely regarded as an effective tool for building capacity back into an overstretched healthcare system, while helping individuals undergo more care at home, with consistent care figures.
Reducing the amount of time that patients spend in hospital settings is a key part of the government’s Plan for Change, launched in December 2024.
“Deep reform” needed to address social care challenges
The government’s 3rd January press release also refers to the longer term “deep reform” needed to address the serious challenges faced by the adult social care sector.
These long-term plans include the creation of a national care service underpinned by national standards. The first step to delivering this is the launch of the independent commission into adult social care, chaired by the Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB.
Reporting to the Prime Minister, the Commission will work with people drawing on care and support services as well as their families, staff, politicians and the public, private and third sector to form recommendations for how to overhaul the adult social care system to ensure it can meet the current and future needs of an ageing population. The first phase will report in 2026 and will focus on medium-term measures, with long-term recommendations to be included in the second phase in 2028.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said the government was working hard on “stabilising the care sector, investing in prevention, and in carers and care workers.”
He added:
“The investment and reforms we’re announcing today [3rd January 2025] will help to modernise social care, get it working more closely with the NHS and help deliver our Plan for Change.
“But our ageing society, with costs of care set to double in the next 20 years, demands longer-term action.
“The independent commission will work to build a national consensus around a new national care service able to meet the needs of older and disabled people into the 21st century.”
Sector responds to planned reform
NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard said:
“Social care has a huge impact on the NHS, with thousands of people in hospitals who are medically fit for discharge the current strain the sector is under has significant consequences for both NHS productivity and performance, so we hope this vital action plan and commitment to create a national care service will both help better support people and ease pressure on hospital wards.”
Meanwhile, Skills for Care CEO, Oonagh Smyth, commented:
“We are pleased to see the commitment to both short-term support and long-term reform for adult social care because we need both, and we welcome the focus on the 1.59 million people working in social care. We look forward to sharing with the commission the recommendations in the workforce strategy that we published last year with key partners from across our diverse sector and are implementing now to ensure that we have the workforce we need for the future.
“Skills for Care has already led the work with DHSC on the care workforce pathway, which will help to ensure that the care workforce is valued, developed and rewarded, and on the guiding principles for delegated healthcare activities. We look forward to working with government to implement these initiatives in full over future years.”
Better training and support for care workers
First Response Training has been delivering a range of health and social care training interventions for almost three decades.
For more than half of that, they have worked in close partnership with national learning disability care provider Dimensions (UK) Ltd. Many of Dimensions’ staff are required to carry out delegated healthcare interventions for the people they support, but Dimensions were finding it increasingly difficult to secure appropriate training for their workforce.
Eventually, Dimensions turned to FRT.
A Trainer at FRT, explains:
“We have worked closely with Dimensions to develop a specialist suite of training in delegated healthcare tasks, which is delivered by highly experienced and competent practitioners. The training includes relevant clinical training equipment, practical simulation activities, assessments and competency sign off.
“Competence remains, however, subject to ongoing development and monitoring within the workplace and registered clinicians should still perform regular competency checks and supervision of care workers.”
You can download FRT’s free guide to delegated healthcare tasks here.
For more information on the training that FRT can provide in delegated healthcare tasks, contact them today on freephone 0800 310 2300 or e-mail info@firstresponsetraining.com.