Kari is Chief Executive and founder of legal rights organisation Access Social Care (Image: Kari Gerstheimer)
Furious campaigners are demanding penny-pinching ministers come clean over the state of Britain’s broken social care system.
There is now thought to be an eye-watering £8.4 billion deficit in what is needed to meet demand.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced just £600 million for social care in last month’s Budget. It has prompted unprecedented panic and fears of the imminent “systemic collapse of care services across Britain”.
Prime Minister Sir is to be told of the impending crisis amid a disturbing “transparency” scandal that has prevented the public from knowing the true scale of social care calamity.
Kari Gerstheimer, chief executive of Access Social Care, which provides free legal advice to those abandoned by the sector, said: “Budget announcements are set to make things dramatically worse for millions of older and working age disabled people and carers without means, who desperately need a social care system that is adequately funded.
“The additional £600 million allocated will be immediately gobbled up by councils’ overspend and will do nothing to reduce the additional financial burden of the budget announcements, leaving people who rely on publicly-funded social care and people who work in publicly-funded social care in a worse position than before the Budget.”
The founder of legal rights organisation Access Social Care slammed transparency over social care (Image: Kari Gerstheimer)
Last month’s financial statement, the first by a Labour government in 14-years, was a crushing blow for businesses, many of which are now fighting to survive.
From April, employers will pay 15 per cent in NI contributions on salaries above £5,000, compared with 13.8 per cent on salaries above £9,100 now.
In addition, the National Living Wage will increase to £12.21 an hour, while the National Minimum Wage, for those aged 18-20, will rise to £10 an hour.
The triple whammy has sparked panic with many largely small and medium-sized providers fearing they will be forced to close. That would mean a massive loss of capacity while the number of people going without care spikes, heaping further pressure on family carers and an already-overrun NHS.
It could also mean thousands of patients would not be able to be discharged from hospitals, further exacerbating a long-standing bed-blocking crisis.
Providers Unite, a grassroots campaign of adult care service providers has warned of “a systemic collapse of care services across Britain” resulting from an unbearable financial burden.
Meanwhile, the Association of Directors of Adult Services, a membership organisation for those working in adult social care, said 81% of councils expect to overspend their adult social care budgets this year – up from 72% in 2023/24 – with an estimated total overspend of £564 million.
The Health Foundation estimates the annual funding gap is fast approaching £9 billion a year.
Mr Padgham, Chair of the Independent Care Group, predicts a social care catastrophe (Image: Andy Commins / Daily Mirror)
Mike Padgham, Chair of The Independent Care Group which speaks for care providers, said: “I think there is a danger the Government is sleepwalking into a very dangerous situation.
“I fear it seriously underestimated the impact the National Insurance and wage increases would have on a sector that has been brutally neglected for three decades.
“We have long argued the social care sector was teetering on the brink of collapse and feared it might just take one thing to tip it over the edge – we might just have reached that point.
“While government after government have been able to ignore the quiet erosion of the sector through the loss of smaller providers over the years, they will not be able to turn a deaf ear on an avalanche of closures.”
Analysis by the Nuffield Trust estimates social care providers face a £2.8bn hit due to National Insurance and wage increases.
Separately 22% of 1,180 providers polled by the Care Provider Alliance say they were planning to close, 73% will refuse new referrals from councils or the NHS, 57% planned to hand back some contracts and 64% will make staff redundant.
The care catastrophe comes as it is claimed successive governments have hidden the true scale of the decades-long crisis from the public, despite the population growing older and living with multiple, complex conditions.
The previous government maintained that it was adequately funding social care, but refused to publish the maths to prove it.
Since 2021, Access Social Care lawyers have been trying to find out how ministers arrived at the conclusion social care is sufficiently funded. But Freedom of Information requests demanding the release of calculations and methods relating to the decision making process have been repeatedly denied.
Last year this was overturned by the Information Commissioner who ruled disclosure was in the public interest. The Government subsequently appealed to the Information Tribunal, which has now ordered it to disclose the information originally requested.
It could lead to the first full-scale pubic discloure about the parlous state of social care and its paltry funding.
Sir Keir will be told to open the books after the Government lost a social care cash secrecy battle (Image: PA)
Ms Gerstheimer said: “This is a landmark court case for government transparency and accountability in social care, as well as for the many families across the country who rely on adult social care.”
In a letter due to be sent to the PM tomorrow, she says: “For some time now we have been urging the Government to share the data they use to make decisions on funding for adult social care.
“After numerous attempts through legal processes to request transparency regarding adult social care funding, successive governments have consistently refused to supply this information. This is in clear opposition to the new ministerial code, drawn up just this month, which requires honesty and openness.
“It’s only through openness and transparency, and working with the sector, civil society and everyone who draws on care or has unmet care needs, that we’ll break the impasse on social care funding that has paralysed reform for decades.
“It’s time for actions, not words, and your actions could improve the lives of millions of older people, disabled people and carers. Please commit to transparency on adult social care funding once and for all.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told the Express: “We are aware of this decision. As legal proceedings remain ongoing we are unable to comment further.”
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “This government inherited a social care system in crisis. We are determined to tackle the significant challenges and build a National Care Service so everybody can access the high-quality care they deserve.”