Oxfordshire candidates give views on social care

More than half of council tax collected by Oxfordshire County Council goes on adult and children's social care.

But despite high spending levels, the sector is still struggling.

Fears have been raised some care homes in the county will be forced to close as costs rise.

So with a potential crisis looming, what would those standing in the local elections on 1 May do to improve social care in Oxfordshire?

Candidates have told BBC Oxford what they would do to tackle the challenges in the sector during a local election debate.

There have been strong warnings about the future from the care sector in recent months, with providers affected by measures announced in the budget.

The think tank Nuffield Trust has calculated independent care providers in England will be hit by an extra £2.8bn in this financial year - £940m in additional National Insurance and £1.85bn in extra wage costs.

Amrit Dhaliwal is the CEO of Wantage-based home care business Walfinch and said that current funding "isn't enough".

"Within this sector there will quite a lot of local authority care providers that will close down in the next 18 months to two years," he said.

"We've got an ageing population - it will just continue to grow and that will really cause a problem for hospital discharges, for people trying to come back home, unless we pay home care providers sensible rates."

The government has said it has taken "immediate action" to help the social care sector, including a £3.7bn funding boost.

But much of the responsibility for social care lies with councils - including Oxfordshire County Council.

Liberal Democrat Dan Levy said the county council needed more money from central government - but his party, who have been running the authority in coalition with the Greens, are trying to do more with less.

"What we're doing is trying to be as efficient as possible," he said.

"So we have something called the 'Oxfordshire Way', which is a way of encouraging people with needs to stay in their own homes rather than go into hospital, and that is incredibly effective."

Labour's Liz Brighouse said her party was looking to change the system of care.

"Very often the money that's poured into our care homes, the private care homes... are actually making profits on it," she said.

"The Labour party would look to actually set up many more co-operatives in order to provide care for older people."

Eddie Reeves from the Conservatives called for better pay for carers - and said the care his grandfather got before he died had a big influence on him.

"I'll never forget the eulogy given by my uncle, when he listed the carers by name, and he referred to them as angels," he said.

"They really are the best people in our communities and they deserve to be paid far more."

Felix Bloomfield from Reform UK says his party would reprioritise funds.

"We're not going to waste our money on net zero and vanity projects like the Lib Dems and Greens do," he said.

"We want to look after people and spend their money on the things that they need."

Helena Richards from the Green Party said something she had heard on the doorstep was that the admin around arranging care was too complicated.

"It's a huge amount of stress for people and a burden," she said.

"So I would love to be in the county council and just try and address why the bureaucracy is so difficult."

Elections for Oxfordshire County Council take place on Thursday, May 1.

You can tell us about the local election issues that matter to you via Your Voice Your Vote.

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