FOR decades, successive Governments have pledged to reform social care but none have brought about the long-term and sustainable change that the sector needs.

Last year I challenged the Prime Minister directly on funding, because we cannot support the 840,000 people who rely on long-term state funded care (plus the million more who need support from the care sector in some capacity) without more resources.

You can watch my exchange with the PM at: www.melstridemp.com/lcmarch21 .

In the past few months however, progress has started to be made. The Government released its long-term strategy to better integrate health and social care services and set out how it would pay for it.

This included a 1.25 per cent increase in National Insurance contributions (beginning in April), which after 12 months will be replaced by a Health and Social Care Levy.

The tax increase is a bold move for a Conservative Government that instinctively wants to lower the tax burden on working families and I have argued for it to be delayed by a year to ease inflationary pressures whilst using instead the advantage of some additional fiscal headroom that has appeared due to recent better than expected economic performance.

The plan is to clear the backlog of NHS operations and is of course vitally important.

The levy will also mean that many people will pay far less towards their care costs.

At present, someone may end up selling their home and spending the majority of their savings to fund their care, but under the new plan no-one will pay more than £86,000 towards care costs over their lifetime. For the least well-off, care services will continue to be fully funded by the state.

The extra spending, however, will not fix social care provision overnight because we have a shortage of care workers.

Last week I spent time with staff at Angel Home Care in Bovey Tracey, who support people in their own homes in more than a dozen nearby communities.

Ingrid Andrews and her team do a vital job and would be able to help many more people if they could recruit more easily.

I also visited Ridge House, a small residential care home in Morchard Bishop. Although different in terms of the care it provides, the message was the same – that recruiting staff is a real challenge.

To help, the Government has included care workers on the shortage occupation list, making it easier for people to emigrate to the UK to work in care, but the key to transforming the sector is to change how it is perceived.

A career in care is no less worthy than a career in nursing or medicine but often isn’t aspired to in the same way. This is a misconception that we need to change.

For more information about care opportunities in Devon visit: www.proudtocaredevon.org.uk .