Ministers have been branded a “disgrace” after they slipped out plans to halve funding promised for social care workers.
The government previously pledged to invest £500million in recruitment and retention of carers.
However, that figure has now been slashed to just £250million to provide training places and a new care certificate qualification.
Care minister Helen Whately made the announcement just days after MPs left Westminster for their Easter break.
Charities and unions reacted with fury, describing the move as an “insult” to carers who were on the frontline during the pandemic.
“This is a disgraceful decision, but how could we expect to see anything else from this government,” Natalie Grayson GMB’s national care officer said.
Jackie O’Sullivan, from learning disability charity Mencap, said: “This plan is an insult to a sector that was once treated as a priority for government.”
Age UK described the plans as not “remotely enough to transform social care” and the King’s Fund think tank said the measures were “a dim shadow of the widescale reform to adult social care that this government came into office promising”.
Liz Kendall, Labour’s shadow social care minister, said it was a “total betrayal” of older and disabled people and a care system that has been “pushed to breaking point”.
Whately said the package “focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves” and added: “While also focusing on the better use of technology, the power of data and digital care records, and extra funding for councils – aiming to make a care system we can be proud of.”
A report published in March by trade organisation Care England and learning disability charity HFT described the adult social care sector as “on the precipice” because of financial pressures.
The report also said that “low levels of pay for care staff is considered to be the biggest barrier to recruitment and retention”.
The Department of Health and Social Care said its plan would speed up discharge from hospital and accelerate the use of technology in the sector.
The department said it will launch an Older People’s Housing Taskforce to decide how best to provide suitable housing depending on need and £1.6 billion over two years to improve hospital discharge.
The government insisted it remains “fully dedicated to the 10-year vision for adult social care set out in the People at the Heart of Care White Paper”.
However, the chancellor’s spring statement last month was criticised for failing to mention social care.