Adult social care needs long-term reform but sector can also be helped in the interim

As the joint report by learning disability charity Hft and Care England, which represents providers, short-term sporadic funding measures, rather than a long-term sustained settlement could be the “driving factor behind this lack of tangible impact”.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, warns the sector's needs “are now on red alert”, lamenting an “insufficient” local government finance settlement and changes to visa rules banning overseas workers bringing dependents.

It is clear that nothing short of root and branch reform of social care is going to be needed in this country.

The crisis in the National Health Service can only be tackled in a meaningful way if the social care conundrum is solved first.

That is why The Yorkshire Post continues to advocate for the establishment of a fully funded National Care Service that is treated with the same importance as the NHS.

But there are things that the Government can do in the interim to alleviate pressures on the care sector.

Access to funding could be simplified. There is also no getting away from the need to make international recruitment less onerous for care providers.