National Care Service vision must include nursing investment, says RCN

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has pledged to create a National Care Service, warning that "broken social care will break our NHS", as he used his Labour Party conference speech to set out his vision for the biggest overhaul of care services in a generation.

Addressing delegates, the prime minister argued that fixing social care is essential to easing pressure across health services, to meet growing need, and to help people live more independent lives at home. He outlined future plans for a person-centred National Care Service that would be free at the point of use, focused on care delivered closer to home, and provide greater recognition to the care workforce.

Responding to the announcement, Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, welcomed the renewed focus on reform, but warned that delivering meaningful change would require political consensus and investment in the workforce.

She said: "Social care reform is one of the great moral challenges of our time and nursing staff see every day the consequences of the shameful failure to deliver it.

"The prime minister spoke movingly about the needs of the vulnerable going unmet, with many forced to endure unsafe, undignified care in hospital corridors as a result. This human cost, and that to the NHS, must remain front and centre even as debate rages. Our profession won’t look kindly on politicians who don’t grasp this opportunity and work cross-party to deliver the change needed."

Nicola said the success of any new care service would depend on addressing longstanding staff shortages in social care and ensuring that the service is nurse-led.

“A National Care Service that starts at home, delivering care to a population with increasingly complex needs, will need to be led by registered nurses. The prime minister is right to recognise the skill and dedication of staff in social care, and to acknowledge how badly they’ve been failed, but the reality is nurse numbers alone have fallen by a third in the last decade,” she said.

Nicola said the plans would need to be backed by a workforce strategy and warned that immigration reforms risked driving away migrant nursing staff who are vital to health and care services.

"The prime minister’s vision also needs a plan, both to grow the domestic nursing workforce and ensure reforms to immigration don't push out dedicated migrant nursing staff," she said.