The Care Workers' Charity Responds to the NHS 10-Year Plan
The Care Workers’ Charity welcomes today’s announcement of a 10-year plan for the NHS, particularly its ambition to deliver care closer to home and prioritise prevention. However, we are deeply concerned by the near-total absence of adult social care from this vision.
It is simply not feasible to transform the NHS without also addressing the urgent crisis facing adult social care. These sectors may be distinct, but they are intrinsically linked – any meaningful NHS reform will depend on a sustainable and well-resourced adult social care system.
The government’s plan outlines major changes, including the creation of neighbourhood health centres, mental health teams in every school, and a shift toward digital delivery of services. However, without a parallel investment in adult social care, these goals risk being unachievable. Care workers – particularly those in domiciliary care – are the very professionals already delivering care in the community. Yet they remain chronically undervalued, underpaid, and under pressure.
A vision for the future of health must include adult social care. The failure to do so is not only a strategic oversight – it is a missed opportunity to fix the very system that underpins NHS success. It is unacceptable that a 10-year plan for the NHS fails to acknowledge the 2 million-strong workforce who are vital to its delivery.
As Karolina Gerlich, CEO of the Care Workers’ Charity states:
“Today’s announcement continues a worrying trend: adult social care is chronically ignored in national reform plans. Shifting more care into the community without resourcing adult social care is not transformation; it’s a transfer of pressure onto a workforce already stretched to breaking point.
Care workers are increasingly expected to take on delegated health tasks – complex, clinical responsibilities that were once the remit of nurses – without the training, pay, or professional recognition they deserve. These tasks are growing, yet the sector remains underfunded, undervalued, and underrepresented in policy decisions.
If we are serious about delivering on this plan, we must invest in the people who are delivering care day in, day out. The Government must stop perceiving social care as just an enabler to the NHS. That starts with a fully funded Fair Pay Agreement and a 10-year plan for adult social care that matches the ambition shown for the NHS.”
For further information please contact Sophie Henry at The Care Workers’ Charity on [email protected].
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