Speeches by Fenton-Glynn.

“I am going to move on to the workforce. Skills for Care did a brilliant state of care report last year, which I have brought up at this Committee a few times. One of the things that came out of that was the 8.3% vacancy rate in social care: 131,000 vacancies in adult social care. What is driving those vacancies?”

“That is my next question.”

“That is reasonable. I used to be a cabinet member for social care—like many on this Committee, I am a recovering local council cabinet member. We tended to find that people would come in from retail and leave to the NHS. We talked about the 8.3% vacancy rate in social care. I think it is 2.3% in the NHS. What do we do …”

“Picking up on that, obviously in our heads when we talk about this we mainly think about residential care, but I imagine there is a very similar picture in care homes.”

“It almost seems that when you leave hospital, multi-disciplinary teams stop being a key cornerstone to good healthcare, which is a pity. I assume that the high turnover also impacts the relationship between the care staff and the family carers. Does it also have an impact on the wellbeing of those who are cared for?”

“There is obviously the issue about caring; Emily talked about the person who had had 100 carers. With the movement in social care, what is the impact on patients of having multiple carers and the lack of retention on those who are cared for?”

“Going to the question that I trailed earlier, thinking about the impact that it has, the ADASS survey at the start of last year, from January to March, said that there were 161,000 unfilled hours in social care. What impact does that vacancy rate and the turnover have on the workers and on the people receiving care?”

“I welcome this plan. I note that it was a recommendation from the Health and Social Care Committee in the last Parliament, and, as a member of that Committee, I hope that it sets a precedent. Two weeks ago I lost my brother, Alex English, to high-grade acinic cell carcinoma. While I pay tribute to all those who gave hi…”

“Despite AstraZeneca’s decision, the UK biotech industry almost doubled last year to £3.4 billion, but it was concentrated in just a few companies. Will the Minister commit to looking at some of the trial research rules to enable smaller companies to work better with NHS trusts so that start-ups and local firms can pros…”

“How are you evaluating that data?”

“I am going to focus mainly on the shift from hospital to community, which is one of the other major shifts. First, Darzi outlined that since we said that we wanted to shift from hospital to community in about 2006—this is a multi-Government failure—we have gone from 47% of the NHS budget being spent in hospitals to 58%…”

“That is why we have the 10-year plan.”

“What is the proportion in hospitals going to go down to?”

“I am slightly concerned, because I asked about left shift and you have told me about acute services, which is very much not the shift that we need to see. I appreciate that we need to have the ongoing funding for left shift, but that does not indicate to me that there is a shift in resources. If you look at the prevent…”

“Earlier, you resiled against the idea of ringfences. This morning’s PAC report says that NHS England “acknowledged that there would have been more investment and progress in enhancing community services in 2023-24 had it not been obliged to redirect funding to prop up the day-to-day spending of local NHS systems.” Is t…”

“You talked about how we are shifting things to GP, and getting more efficient and better services there. Have you done any evaluation on how GP telephone triage is working?”

“Thank you all for coming. It is quite a good week for you to be here, given all the other announcements. I re-read Sir Andrew’s report earlier this week, and it struck me that, as you say, the thing missing from it is where the funding is coming from. I would be interested if you, Sir Andrew, with your hat on as a form…”

“To what extent do you think the failure to reform is driving inequalities in both access to and quality of social care? Do you think there are ideas for reform that could address that?”

“I think that is probably true. There was a National Audit Office report in 2023—I am trying really hard not to say “last year”—which outlined the social care issues. One of the things it mentioned was significant authority to authority differences, which will be partly driven by the finances of those authorities. Witho…”

“I know West Yorkshire care quite well, because I used to sit on the West Yorkshire ICB. We have a regional disparity and also a disparity with some marginalised groups. There is also the ability to advocate for oneself, and whether someone has family to advocate for them. I have recently had involvement with the care s…”