Lisa Hopkins, CEO at SeeAbility, blogs on the fallout from the Autumn 2024 Budget for social care and charities. 

After the general election, I blogged on my hopes for the people that rely on social care to live their lives, and for people who work for care and support services. I stressed the need to find serious solutions. 

I might have been a bit gloomy given the difficult times and shockwaves that have struck social care delivery over the past few years, and decades of empty promises on reform. We were yet to see more detail on what long term reform of social care could look like under a Labour government.

But then we had the Autumn budget bombshell and its unpredicted rise in employer National Insurance contributions. Frankly my mood went from gloom to total doom. 

Of course something was needed to help bolster the public finances, with the NI rise meaning an estimated £22bn going to the NHS. But what of social care? A piecemeal grant to local councils of £600m is promised but councils say their social care budgets have been overspent by nearly this sum already, so this is a zero sum game. 

And while we hear about the NHS and other parts of the public sector being exempt or the cost recognised through additional funding, I have yet to hear of any plans for social care. Warm words of creating the same respect and value for social care as is given to the NHS is not enough.

There is nowhere to go with this. We are completely boxed in by the Budget. We provide an almost entirely publicly funded service, on behalf of local authorities and NHS commissioners who contract with us. We are totally constrained by what they are able to pay for that support. 

We can predict and plan for some things, and budget accordingly for the rise in the National Living Wage each year, although negotiations with commissioners barely get us to half of what those costs are. And we have strived to be a Real Living Wage employer, doing what we can to help retain and reward our hard working colleagues. 

But this unexpected cost takes us to different territory. As a charity we employ close to 1000 staff, so you can imagine the financial impact this National Insurance change will have.

I and other charity CEOs have written to the Chancellor about the gravity of the situation – put simply if providers cannot absorb these costs, which is in the order of billions, not millions, then disabled people will go without support, with devastating consequences. We cannot let this happen.

My colleague Scott Watkin, our head of engagement (pictured), is determined to ensure that disabled people’s voices are heard and right at the heart of what is at stake. 

Scott says:

“Myself and my team are where we are today thanks to the support of social care. If disabled people lose their social care support then this will be devastating. Cuts will damage our future prospects, our health, our lives.”

I continue to see everyday the dedication of my colleagues and what they are doing to support people to thrive. So I repeat what I said in my earlier blog. Social care is not a problem, an inconvenience, or a financial drain. It provides a brilliant opportunity to support people to have ambitious lives. 

It is a lifeline for so many people, now we need the government to throw people with disabilities a financial lifeline, rethink, and realise the true value and cost of social care.

Call to action

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