Government begins work to identify size of social care funding gap.

MPs have launched an inquiry to establish how much extra money needs to be spent by government in each of the next five years to counteract the impact of a shortage of care on the NHS.

The Health and Social Care Committee, made up of 10 Conservative and Labour MPs, will also consider shortages in the social care workforce and what solutions need to be found to address changes in the years ahead.

The Committee says it welcomes short submissions of evidence addressing the following questions:

• What impact is the current social care funding situation having on the NHS?
  • What level of funding is required in each of the next five years to address this?
  • What is the extent of current workforce shortages in social care, how will they change over the next five years, and how do they need to be addressed?

Members of the public, organisations and others with relevant expertise are invited to submit evidence in advance of an April 14 deadline.

Each submission should:?
• be no more than 3,000 words in length?
• be in Word format with as little use of colour or logos as possible?
• have numbered paragraphs

More information how to get involved with an inquiry and submit evidence can be found here.

‘Huge cost’

“This longstanding crisis comes with a huge cost to families and individuals who can’t get the social care they need,” said Jeremy Hunt, the Health and Social Care Committee Chair. “But it affects us all when a lack of availability prevents people leaving hospital, contributing to increased pressure on the NHS.”

“We’ll be establishing an agreed figure that represents the extra funding that’s needed in each of the next five years in order to fix this.”

“As well as extra money, we’ll be examining solutions to tackle staffing shortages in social care that would be responsive to workforce changes.”

The Social Care Funding and Workforce inquiry will not examine wider questions relating to social care such as financial eligibility or how to raise extra funds for social care.

Elsewhere, the Equality and Human Rights Commission have granted Health Secretary Matt Hancock an extension until March 17 to respond to their pre-action letter threatening legal action for alleged human rights breaches.

See also: Change It Up

Committee membership:

Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP (Chair) (Conservative, South West Surrey); Paul Bristow MP (Conservative, Peterborough), Amy Callaghan MP (Scottish National Party, East Dunbartonshire), Rosie Cooper MP (Labour, West Lancashire), Dr James Davies MP (Conservative, Vale of Clwyd), Dr Luke Evans MP (Conservative, Bosworth), James Murray MP (Labour, Ealing North), Taiwo Owatemi MP (Labour, Coventry North West), Sarah Owen MP (Labour, Luton North), Dean Russell MP (Conservative, Watford), Laura Trott MP (Conservative, Sevenoaks).