UK 
United States
Last year’s Autumn Budget placed the UK’s adult social care sector at a crossroad. The authorities have granted councils a sizable corpus for adult and children’s social care to alleviate their pressures. Yet, this boost appears short-term when considering the other accompanying regulatory changes.
Care providers are actively voicing concerns. They expect the sector to continue grappling with its existing pressures, which are perhaps now exacerbated. There are apprehensions about sustaining quality services, with some care home operators fearing being ‘wiped off.’
In this blog, we examine the status quo and spotlight the factors leading to the financial squeeze. We also explore how care providers can sustainably improve services and better meet the rising social care demands considering the current scenario.
Examining The Budget's Impact: A Double-Edged Sword
The Autumn budget granted local authorities an extra £600m in funding for adult and children's social care. While the sector welcomes this, the overall sentiment is grim due to the expected rise in costs due to the other budget provisions. It’s being foreseen that this will likely outpace all signs of support.
For instance, Raj Sehgal, chief executive of Armscare, which operates five care homes in Norfolk, now expects an annual cost increase of £350,000 in response to the other accompanying Autumn budget provisions.
Rising costs are expected to primarily result from two significant moves:
Increased employers' national insurance contributions to workers' wages
While these measures are introduced to enhance worker welfare, these are likely to have concerning cost implications for the survival of care-providing organisations.
Staffing expenses, which account for most of the sector's expenditure, will surge with these adjustments. This will likely nullify the additional funding received. Furthermore, inflationary pressures on utilities, food, and supplies will continue squeezing care budgets. Key challenges the sector faces, like workforce shortages and retention challenges, will receive no respite. The net effect of these factors is being envisaged as a potentially precarious operating environment. This can be hard to tackle without added financial support. As a result, some care homes are fearing that they may cease to exist.
A Call for Sustainable Solutions
The current times demand a more comprehensive funding strategy to account for the growing demand for adult social care and the actual cost of delivering these essential services. At the same time, care providers must also adopt a sustainable approach to balance costs with quality care. This requires focusing on optimising talent costs without compromising care quality.
Solutions like using robust workforce management platforms, improving resource allocation, and pursuing data-driven hiring strategies can help adult social care organisations rise to the challenge and continue to provide critical care for those who need it most.
To find out more, download this composite case study, which examines how care home operators can drive talent costs savings – without sacrificing quality of care.
