Responding to the announcement of a government commission on adult social care RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger, said:
“Social care requires long overdue reform. Although today's announcement is a step in the right direction, the reality is that a commission due to report in three years' time will do little to solve the crisis in the here and now. A healthy and stable social care sector is crucial to easing pressures in NHS services.
“Social care lacks funding and is gripped by widespread vacancies, with the numbers of registered nurses declining. Nursing staff deliver the vast majority of care in the sector and must be central to any attempts to turn things around.
“Vulnerable people needing care cannot wait until 2028 for change and neither can the over-worked, underpaid nursing staff who care for them.”
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Notes to editors
According to Skills for Care ‘state of the adult social care sector and workforce report’, the number of filled registered nurse posts decreased between 2017/18 and 2023/24, from 39,000 to 34,000.
