Responding to the Liberal Democrat announcement to provide free personal care to help elderly people stay in their own homes for longer, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:

“Sorting out the financial and workforce crises in social care is absolutely vital for relieving pressure on the NHS so that leaders and their teams can tackle care backlogs and improve performance. Health and social care are intrinsically linked, with pressures in one sector often leading to pressures in the other. The health service will not be able to hit its performance and productivity ambitions without the government solving the crises in social care.

“Social care budgets have been below what is needed for a very long time. That is why we are calling on whoever forms the next government to draw up and deliver a workforce plan for the sector equivalent to the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.”