NESCHA has been less visible in recent months and, as Project Leader, I take responsibility for that.
This reflects a deeply personal experience. My wife, who had lived with mixed dementia for over four years, was admitted to hospital last October and, following a rapid discharge to a care home, died peacefully in December with our family present.
Despite a professional background in social work and years spent working on improving health and care systems, nothing fully prepares you for living that experience. It brought into sharp focus both the compassion of frontline staff and the frustrations families can face when services are not as joined-up or consistent as they should be.
These are not isolated issues. As The King’s Fund has highlighted, social care continues to face challenges around access, workforce pressures, variation in quality, and integration with the NHS. Recent workforce data shows a decline in people entering care roles, reflecting concerns about recognition, pay, and sustainability.
At the same time, evidence reported by Community Care {https://www.communitycare.co.uk/content/news/one-in-five-social-work-graduates-not-employed-in-profession-15-months-after-qualifying }shows that around one in five social work graduates are not working in the profession within 15 months of qualifying. This raises fundamental questions not just about recruitment, but about retention, support, and how the system values its workforce.
We know that good care exists. The challenge is to make it consistent—so that people do not face a postcode lottery in the quality of support they receive.
There is real dedication across health and social care, particularly among care workers and social workers. Yet without better recognition, fair pay, career development, and proper support, the system will continue to struggle to attract and retain the people it depends on.
The task now is clear: to match that compassion with better coordination, stronger support for the workforce, and a genuine commitment to listening to patients, carers, and frontline staff—so that good care becomes the standard everywhere, not the exception.