THE government is failing to provide the leadership required to deliver a social care sector sufficient to meet the country’s future needs, a new report from MPs reveals today.

Initiatives by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to support the workforce have so far only been short-term, while a long-term and comprehensive workforce plan is lacking, the public accounts committee has found.

Its report states that MPs “remain unconvinced” about whether the department knows if it is achieving value for money from additional funding going to adult social care.

The “patchwork funding and short-notice announcements… hinder the sector’s ability to plan for the long-term and risk undermining the delivery of the department’s 10-year vision for adult social care,” MPs said.

The report said: “Two years on from its long-awaited White Paper… plans for reform have once again gone awry.

“Charging reform is delayed, system reform scaled back and funding for both has been diverted, including from areas such as supported housing, towards addressing urgent pressures.

“Meanwhile, waiting lists are rising, workforce vacancies exceed 150,000 and local authority finances are under sustained pressure.”

The committee made six recommendations including more stable funding to help local authorities plan for the long term.

MPs said the department had “still not produced a convincing plan to address the chronic staff shortages (in social care) in the long-term” and requested that it must set out “how it will lead the sector to identify and address workforce challenges.”

MPs said they welcomed plans previously announced to professionalise the workforce, but that this “falls short on providing leadership on pay and ensuring parity of esteem with equivalent NHS roles.”

The Nuffield Trust health think tank said the committee had delivered “a scathing judgement on the government’s progress” and backed a call for the department to “provide clarity on how it intends to deliver change.”

Care England said the spring Budget this month had “made it clear adult social care is not high on the government’s agenda” and added that “the gauntlet has been thrown by this report.”

Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said that “rather than painting an overly gloomy picture, the report may actually be understating the challenges facing older people in need of care, and those whose job it is to commission and provide it.”

Tom Marsland, Policy Manager at the national disability charity Sense, said: “Report after report has shown how desperately social care is being failed. For years, the system has been under-funded, under-resourced and under-staffed, having a devastating impact on those who rely on social care to live happy and healthy lives. This report’s conclusion that the Department for Health and Social Care is not providing the leadership needed to meet the country’s future needs is alarming, but sadly not surprising for those of us in the social care sector.

“The Government cannot continue patch this issue up with short-term funding which does little to address the roots of the crisis. We urgently need long-term funding and a social care workforce plan to guarantee the future of social care.”

The DHSC was contacted for comment.