Event Details

Roundtable at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference 2024 that will discuss how the UK can develop a world leading social care workforce that supports individuals and families in their time of need.

The UK population is ageing and getting sicker. The social care sector provides vital support for millions of people and their families but is in the midst of a workforce crisis that successive Governments have failed to address.

There are almost half a million people on waiting lists for care in residential settings and Skills for Care have found that almost one in ten posts are vacant. Working in social care is demanding and insecure and has been characterised as ‘dirty work’. In addition, workers face low pay, poor working conditions and one in five workers are on zero-hour contracts. Care managers have told Lancaster University they dread supermarkets opening up nearby as they fear they will lose staff as people leave the sector in search of higher quality employment.

In recent years, a lack of action to reform the social care sector has left many care settings understaffed and staff over worked and undervalued. The Health Foundation has called the workforce challenges “immense but not insurmountable”.

This roundtable - in partnership with Lancaster University - will bring together politicians, local leaders, employers, think tanks and representative bodies to ask the following questions:

• How can the UK develop a world leading social care workforce that supports individuals and families in their time of need?
• How can the Liberal Democrats push for a rescue package for adult social care in the UK? How will it be funded?
• Do we need a ‘new deal for social care workers’? How could it tackle low pay, lack of in-work profession, high levels of stress and sickness and long-term retention issues?

This is a private roundtable at the Liberal Democrat Conference, for more information please contact Charlotte Miller on: info@theworkfoundation.com.

Attendees include Pippa Heylings MP, Angus MacDonald MP, Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP (Scottish Liberal Democrats Leader), Jane Dodd AM (Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats), Baroness Claire Tyler and senior representatives from Health Foundation, Unison, Nuffield Trust and Skills for Care.