Adult social care expert Steve Scown to host an ‘Ask Me Anything’ live on planned reforms

Ask trained learning disability nurse and charity chief executive Steve Scown about the social care sector’s perspective on the government’s plans

Tens of thousands of care home residents have died for reasons linked to Covid since start of pandemic, figures show (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

MPs are being asked to back the new “health and social care levy” – effectively a national insurance (NI) hike of 1.25 percentage points, from next April – later today (8 September).

Social care leaders are warning that Boris Johnson’s £12bn-a-year tax raid will fail to end the crisis that has left 1.6 million elderly and disabled people without help, after most of the cash was diverted to the NHS.

And not only that but the plan has also been met so far with an angry backlash from councils and charities.

They warned local authorities would continue to be starved of the billions needed to provide adequate care for people in their own homes, a verdict backed by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

But what about those who the tax increase is designed to help – will it have any positive impact and where is that cash injection from the tax payer likely to be spent? What else should the government be doing to help the social care sector?

Steve Scown, Chief Executive of leading adult social care charity Dimensions, will be on hand to answer your questions during a live ask me anything event being held on this page between 4-5pm on Thursday, 9 September.

A trained learning disability nurse, Steve worked in a number of NHS management positions before joining the voluntary sector in 1993.

Steve has long been an advocate of much needed social care reform, and he believes there are key challenges which the Government’s announcement must address. He is keen to see a restructure of the care system so it is more supportive of those who provide services as well as those who require them.

Do you have questions about social care and how it should be funded? Steve will be on hand on Thursday afternoon to answer as many as he can about the implications for all those in the social care sector affected this announcement.

To get involved all you have to do is register to submit your question in the comments below.

If you’re not already a member, click “sign up” in the comments box to leave your question. Don’t worry if you can’t see your question – they may be hidden until he joins the conversation to answer them. Then join us live on this page at 4pm as Steve tackle as many questions as he can.