'Good news day' for care sector as councillors back move to reflect uplift in line with current inflation

Councillor Julia Buckley, Shropshire Council's Labour group leader, described it as "a good news day for care providers in Shropshire" after her motion was given full backing by colleagues at today's full council meeting.

It will be a welcome reprieve for providers given soaring inflation rates and running costs.

Stef Kay, of the local network of Shropshire Partners in Care (SPiC) explained the scale of the problem for care providers.

“The learning disability/autism sector is balancing on a cliff edge and needs significant investment. Since 2018, the national minimum wage has increased by 36.7 per cent. In Shropshire, council funded fees for learning disability/autism services have increased by 24 per cent. The latest uplift is on the back of 12 years of austerity, councils have been deeply affected by year on year cuts in funding from central government, so it’s no surprise that the sector is failing people and their families.

"People with learning disability/autism deserve so much more, they need caring, compassionate, skilled staff to support people to develop skills and independence, however the lack of funding to invest in staff, through pay, benefits and training is bringing the sector to its knees and needs urgent attention. Staff working in the sector report they feel undervalued because the investment in their future isn’t there, the pay is poor, terms and conditions have been eroded to manage the income and the whole situation is unsustainable with recruitment at the worst levels in the sector. It says something when supermarket jobs pay more than the care sector can pay its’ workforce, no wonder support staff feel undervalued."

Councillor Buckley welcomed the commitment from local authority, saying: “Today is a good news day for care providers in Shropshire. They have been completely overwhelmed by rising costs on energy, inflation and wage increases over the last two years; and they needed recognition of this by the council during the annual negotiations on cost uplifts. Today we secured that commitment and I am hopeful it will bring much needed support for local care providers. Ultimately we want to avoid service closures and help them sustain their important work, supporting our most vulnerable residents across the county.”

Care Providers in Shropshire have been lobbying Shropshire Council chiefs in the Adult Social Care team to look again at the process for calculating the annual fee uplift for delivering their care work. At today’s Full Council meeting of Shropshire Council a motion from Labour’s Councillor Julia Buckley brought forward proposals to update this process, which would take into account soaring inflation and improved wages for care workers in what she described as “a good news day for social care in Shropshire”.

Every Spring the Council conducts a “cost of care uplift” review to take into account any cost increases within the year, for care organisations delivering multi-annual contracts. The purpose of the exercise is to ensure contracted providers can maintain ongoing standards of care within the contracts in line with inflationary pressures. However many of these organisations are not-for-profit and cannot subsidise the work if the uplift is inadequate to cover all increased costs.

The Care Provider Alliance, representing 19,000 independent and voluntary adult social care providers in England, claims that the outdated model has led to a funding gap of at least £2.88bn across the country for the actual cost of care. Their chair Nadra Ahmed claims, “The Fair Cost of Care exercises were based on data from two years ago so do not include the subsequent increases in the minimum wage, inflation and energy costs. Nor do the figures account for the urgent need for improved pay, and conditions for care workers.

Crucially, the care exercise also excluded many social care services for people with learning disabilities, autism, or mental health problems. In learning disability and autism services a recent survey showed that 71 per cent of providers have handed back a contract, declined to deliver a service, or considered doing so in the last 12 months. 83 per cent are subsidising services that should be paid for in full by the state”.

Today’s motion at full council included a commitment "To recognise the complication of the timelag using the previous year’s costings, and impact of inflation, and how this has added additional pressure where the discrepancy is unusually high such as in the 2023/24 negotiations".

It continued: "This should be given due consideration, and where possible, costs calculated as an average of the two years, and to also take account of inflation projections into the future.”

Following an amendment from Councillor Cecilia Motley, the motion was passed unanimously.