National Dignity Council: Social care needs more than a new settlement – it needs dignity at its heart

Responding to Baroness Casey’s stark warning that successive governments have been “asleep at the wheel” in relation to adult social care, Jan Burns MBE, Chief Executive of the National Dignity Council, has called for a fundamental rethink of how society values, delivers and experiences care.

Jan Burns said:

“Baroness Casey’s findings should be a wake-up call for the whole country. For far too long, adult social care has lacked the leadership, recognition, investment and strategic direction it deserves. We cannot continue to allow a system that supports some of our most vulnerable citizens to operate without the clarity, consistency and national commitment that people have every right to expect.

“However, while structures, governance, funding and accountability are essential, we must not lose sight of what social care is fundamentally about: people.

“Behind every statistic is a human being. Someone’s mother, father, partner, son, daughter, friend or neighbour. People who have the same right as anyone else to be listened to, respected, valued and treated with dignity, regardless of their age, disability, circumstances or where they live.

“The findings of the Covid-19 Inquiry are particularly painful. That older people and those who depended on care, together with the workers supporting them, could become an afterthought during a national emergency is deeply shameful. The experiences of those who died without their loved ones beside them, and of the care workers who witnessed such distressing events, must never be forgotten. We have a responsibility to learn from this and ensure that dignity, humanity and human rights are never again compromised in this way.

“The National Dignity Council believes that dignity must be recognised as a fundamental principle underpinning all care, policy, commissioning, leadership and practice. It cannot be an aspiration confined to organisational values statements or something that depends on the goodwill of individual care workers. It must be an expectation, embedded in the culture and accountability of every organisation and supported by national leadership.

“We also need to recognise and value the 1.5 million people working in social care. They are not simply a workforce delivering a service; they are people who make an enormous contribution to the lives of others and to society. Their skills, compassion and professionalism deserve recognition, investment and a stronger collective voice.

“As the National Dignity Council approaches its 20th anniversary, we reflect on two decades of championing dignity and the contribution of the 194,000 Dignity Champions sharing their stories. This demonstrates that there is already a significant commitment to making dignity a reality. We must build on that commitment rather than start again.

“Baroness Casey speaks of a new settlement for care based on decency, contribution and a duty to care for our neighbours, our loved ones and ourselves. We wholeheartedly support those values.

“But our challenge to government is this: let us make dignity the foundation of that new settlement. Let us create a social care system in which every citizen understands their human right to be treated with dignity, every person receiving care experiences it, and every person delivering care is supported to uphold it.

“Social care is not a lesser service or a lesser responsibility. It is an essential part of our society and a reflection of who we are as a nation.

We must move beyond talking about the value of care and demonstrate, through our actions, that every life has value and every person matters.”

Jan Burns MBE
Chief Executive
National Dignity Council