01 Nov 2024
Social care continues to be misunderstood and overlooked by yet another government. The £600m additional funding to social care is dwarfed by the £22.6bn extra allocated to the NHS.
And whilst this extra funding, alongside exemption from NI contribution increases will be welcomed by our public sector partners, many of the organisations delivering health and social care in the community have been entirely forgotten about.
Whilst we appreciate the need for a bold budget that invests in the country’s infrastructure, the disparity in investment between NHS and social care, and the way in which NI hike relief has been applied, risks causing extra pain to charities such as Hamelin, who deliver so much of this social care support on the frontline. This will affect what can be done by the voluntary sector to support our communities, and subsequently, put more pressure on the NHS and local authorities.
Paying our brilliant and compassionate staff is by far the largest proportion of our charity’s running costs. The large increase in the National Living Wage (6.7%) is welcome but will cost our charity over £90,000 to comply with. The additional burden of the increase to the NI contributions and reduction in the threshold will cost Hamelin £92,650. A total of £182,650 unbudgeted costs for 2025/26 alone, which could be better spent on meeting the increasing unmet need in our communities.
We believe the £600m uplift in social care funding will not even cover these staff costs in full, let alone make a dent in the chronic underfunding that voluntary sector organisations have suffered for years.
Hamelin is and will be resilient. We are adamant that we will survive and continue to support disabled people across Essex. It’s hugely disappointing that this £182,650 could otherwise be used to fund vital services such as respite, befriending, mentoring and employment support for more autistic adults and people with learning disabilities.
We call on the government to extend the NI relief to social care providers, such as charities, who collectively employ 1.84million people (Skills for Care 2024) - a larger combined workforce than the NHS - so that we can continue to deliver care and support to the most vulnerable people in our communities.