ANGRY care providers say a Government cut in funding for the sector’s workforce is yet another cruel betrayal of a sector looking after the country’s most vulnerable.
It has been confirmed today that £500m earmarked to help train the social care workforce has been halved to £250m.
The Independent Care Group says the news comes at a time when the sector is in crisis and needs an increase rather than cuts in funding. It is also calling for long-overdue plans for social care reform to be published straight away and not “within weeks”.
ICG chair Mike Padgham said: “This is yet another cruel and unfair cut to the funding we need to provide help and support to older and vulnerable people.
“The sector is going through an unprecedented staffing crisis with 165,000 vacancies crippling our delivery of care. We need every penny of funding and cannot afford to have £250m removed at a stroke like this.
“The Government insists that all promised funding will stay within the sector but we cannot believe a word they tell us anymore.
“The sector is suffering demise by a thousand cuts and the people who will suffer most are the 1.6m people who cannot get care and the hundreds of thousands more who are finding they need help and support, every day.”
The ICG is angry that long-promised reform of the sector keeps being put back with the Government now saying plans will be announced “within weeks”.