- Conference
- 2023 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2023
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that it has debated many motions over recent years on social care, including for older people. However, the problems remain.
Conference is appalled that adult social care continues to exist in a state of permanent crisis and that the sector remains severely underfunded, with hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people being unable to access the care they need.
Conference recognises that health and social care workers are poorly paid and that training for staff in this sector is inadequate for the care that is needed for people in residential homes, nursing homes or for that matter, in their own home.
Conference is deeply concerned that a large number of care staff are leaving the sector and this has continually increased during and after the pandemic due to the poor pay and conditions, and notes that the social care workforce shrank by 50,000 people in 2021-22, contributing to the record high of 165,000 vacancies across the sector. This ongoing exodus of care staff further compounds the major staff retention problems caused by the Tory government’s disastrous 2021 legislation which imposed compulsory vaccinations on care home employees and for those staff visiting care establishments.
Conference asserts that a major reason for workers leaving the sector is the fact that pay levels are too low to compete with other sectors, such as retail, and further notes that these problems are bound up with the fact that too many cowboy care providers continue to operate in the sector, as part of an under-regulated and massively fragmented system.
UNISON has 165,000 retired members and this is a serious concern for retired members as well as anyone who relies on care workers to assist them with their day to day living.
A House of Lords report in 2019 said that 1.4 million older people have an unmet care need. The Health Foundation’s report “What’s the problem with social care” identified a funding gap of £18 million for social care by 2030/31. UNISON General Secretary Christina McAnea has stated that without sufficient staff the Government’s policy on the NHS and Social Care is doomed.
Conference notes that government attempts to address the crisis have so far amounted to little more than a sticking plaster when what is needed is substantial and sustained investment, coupled with wide ranging reform of the sector and a comprehensive workforce strategy.
Nothing that the governments in Westminster, in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland has done has made an impact on this crisis situation.
Conference therefore reasserts its support for a National Care Service that brings about consistent standards of care for service users and consistent terms and conditions for the workforce.
Conference congratulates UNISON on its ongoing work in being a prominent proponent of such a system as we move towards the next general election and calls on the National Executive Council, working through the appropriate UNISON structures, to:
1) Intensify the union’s campaigning for a National Care Service, including national pay bargaining and a national partnership forum similar to the NHS;
2) Continue to campaign for improvements to social care for older people including the provision of care by the Public Sector;
3) Continue to campaign for increased investment particularly in the work force;
4) Campaign for an end to the use of private equity in social care and a clampdown on the inappropriate use of the profit motive;
5) Continue to work with other like minded organisations in the care sector as part of a broad-based alliance of those demanding reform;
6) Build alliances with other TUC affiliates to ensure the broadest possible trade union campaign for a properly funded National Care Service under democratic control;
7) Call on UNISON’s Labour Link to continue to campaign for a National Care Service within all relevant Labour Party forums.
8) Use Labour Link and all TUC structures to lobby for tax avoidance or low tax companies to start being taxed in the UK so that these huge profits can be used to fund social care across the UK;
9) Use Labour Link and all TUC structures to lobby for energy companies profits from oil revenues to be used annually to help fund social care provision across the UK.”
10) Report back to National Delegate Conference in 2024 on any progress.
