- Conference
- 2022 Community Conference and Seminar
- Date
- 2 November 2021
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes the judgement issued by the Supreme Court on 19 March 2021 in the case of Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson-Blake, which found that care workers employed on sleepover shifts were not entitled to the minimum wage and congratulates UNISON on pursuing this case to the Supreme Court. We believe that this devastating outcome is the latest indictment of the scandalous state of social care and a further example of the complete disregard shown to those who deliver social care services, and the people they support.
Conference recalls the publication in July 2019 of the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report on Social Care Funding “Time to end a national scandal” which highlighted that;
1. adult social care in England continues to be inadequately funded.
2. 1.4 million older people had an unmet care need.
3. urged the government to provide an immediate £8 billion cash injection and to reform the provision of care, including by giving free personal care to people who need it.
Conference further notes that in its November 2019 report entitled “Ethical Care: A Bold Reform Agenda for Adult Social Care”, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) described social care as “the ultimate Cinderella service”. Identifying that since 2008/09, there had been a five percent reduction in the number of people receiving publicly funded social care per year. Between 2008-09 and 2019, this equated to around 600,000 people. This had occurred despite a significant increase in the number of people in need of care.
The Institute for Public Policy Research, the same year reported that “the impact of the cuts to social care are felt particularly strongly among the workforce. Nearly half the staff in the sector are paid below the living wage – with large numbers also paid below the minimum wage.” The report went on to say that staff “retention is poor and turnover is high, with around one-third of the workforce leaving in any one year. This is leading to significant unfilled staffing gaps, which are due to grow from 78,000 today (November 2019) to 350,000 by 2028 – or 400,000 if freedom of movement comes to an end.”
Conference further believes that the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic exposed the consequences of the failure of successive governments to tackle the crisis in social care.
The sector was poorly prepared for the pandemic and the years of underfunding had left the sector without the equipment and estates necessary to manage the crisis. Our members know that many care homes had insufficient space to safely isolate people who had caught COVID-19 and contain the spread. Local supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) were low, or non-existent in some places, which left many care workers exposed to the virus.
The pandemic further exposed inequalities within social care too, with Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, adults with learning disabilities, and those on the lowest incomes disproportionately affected.
This picture will be immediately recognisable to Community members in social care and the officers and reps who support them.
Conference believes that the crisis in social care is not simply a crisis of underfunding, but a systemic crisis of fragmentation and exploitation arising from the dominance of the market.
As members in Community know, care homes only make up one part of the social care sector. The labyrinthine and opaque nature of many providers’ financial structures, make finding similar information from providers of other forms of care very difficult. Despite this, Skills for Care estimate that the adult social care sector in the UK is worth £46.2 billion.
Conference welcomes the work being undertaken within and by UNISON to tackle this problem Through the “Stand Up for Social Care” campaign, UNISON North West has launched a successful network of more than a hundred councillors and a worker led organising committee. Crucially, this involves a clear focus on insourcing social care provision and ending the dominance of the market.
Conference believes that we need to build on the work undertaken by UNISON North West and initiatives in other nations/regions and ensure that our legal and political efforts are combined with an effective national organising strategy for social care, building workplace organisation across the sector.
Conference therefore calls upon the Service Group Executive to:
a) Campaign for a social care system that is publicly delivered, free at the point of need and paid for by universal progressive taxation. Such a system should ensure proper methods of accountability to the workforce and those in receipt of care and support, with the principle of co-design at its heart, so that we do not repeat past injustices, where recipients have been denied their right to control over their own lives;
b) Work with the National Executive Council and other stakeholder Service Groups to demand the requisite resources to properly resource a national social care organising campaign aimed at not only recruiting social care workers into UNISON, but doing so in way designed to empower those workers to realise their collective strength;
c) Work with service groups, Labour Link and other stakeholders including by lobbying political parties in positions of power and influence in Scotland, Cymru/Wales and Northern Ireland to continue to highlight the gross under-funding of adult social care and the impact this has on society.
d) Continue to work with civil society partners and lobbying/campaigning organisations such as the Future Social Care Coalition to advance the objectives contained in this motion.