MILLIONS of people will be unable to get the residential care they need without urgent Government reform, a York and North Yorkshire sector leader is warning.

Mike Padgham, chair of representative organisation, the Independent Care Group, will today tell Care Minister Helen Whately the pandemic has pushed an already struggling care sector to the brink.

He will warn that 1.5 million people are already unable to get the care they need because of spending cuts and that number could increase significantly.

“If social care gets the reform it has been promised, hundreds of thousands of people will get the care they are currently denied and staff will get the recognition they have earned.

"The economy will get a boost from a properly funded and economically viable social care sector," he said..

“If it doesn’t get that reform, thousands of care providers will go to the wall at a time when the country needs them most.

"The number of people not getting the care they need will rocket into the millions and thousands of jobs will be lost."

Mr Padgham said many care homes were in a "perilous situation" before the pandemic gave them higher staffing costs, extra PPE costs and high insurance premiums.

"Now they are also facing reduced occupancy levels, pushing many to the brink of survival," he said.

He called for a root and branch overhaul of the way social care is planned and funded, NHS care and social care to be merged and managed either locally or nationally, extra funding for social care, funded by taxation or National Insurance, dementia treated like other high priority illnesses, like cancer and heart disease, a fixed percentage of GDP to be spent on social care and social care businesses to be zero-rated for VAT.

“If social care gets the reform it has been promised, hundreds of thousands of people will get the care they are currently denied and staff will get the recognition they have earned," he said.

"The economy will get a boost from a properly funded and economically viable social care sector.

“If it doesn’t get that reform, thousands of care providers will go to the wall at a time when the country needs them most.

"The number of people not getting the care they need will rocket into the millions and thousands of jobs will be lost.

“This is an opportunity for the Minister’s government to go down in history, as Bevan did with the NHS, as the administration that finally creates a properly-funded, sustainable and successful social care sector that this country craves and deserves,” said Mr Padgham.

The Independent Care Group represents independent care providers in York and North Yorkshire.