UCU: The crisis in social care

Motion

Motion text: The current crisis in social care is the outcome of the failure of successive governments to provide adequate funding for the care of dependent people and for support for their families. Ministerial promises to ‘fix the problem’ have been repeatedly broken, whilst the crisis deepens. Hospitals cannot safely discharge patients who are ready to return home because domiciliary support is not available.
Congress recognises that effective social care provision cannot be achieved under misconceived austerity policies, that ‘care for profit’ has often been inadequate and that exhausted, unpaid family carers feel unrecognised and undervalued. The state should be central to the funding and delivery of vital social care at home and in residential settings.
Congress instructs the NEC to join the National Pensioners Convention in campaigning for:
1. An urgent, short-term plan to tackle the immediate crisis;
2. A comprehensive, long-term social care strategy substantially based on state funding.