A woman who runs a home care branch in the Midlands told me her phone had not stopped since the Prime Minister's speech. Families kept ringing to ask whether care was about to become free.
She had to tell them nothing changes for years.
Andy Burnham used his Labour conference speech to set out a National Care Service. He described it as a person-centred, high-quality service that starts in the home. DAC Beachcroft summed it up for providers in National Care Service: 5 questions for social care providers, published on 30 September.
But the detail matters more than the headline, because it tells you what to do this year and what to leave alone. That is where most providers should start.
What has the Prime Minister actually promised on care?
Three things stand out. Care would be free at the point of use, with no care charges paid from a person's basic state pension. The system would protect people's homes and savings. And care workers would get greater recognition.
It is a big promise, but the timing is the catch. The Prime Minister said the groundwork would start now and the service itself would arrive in the next parliament.
DAC Beachcroft is blunt about it. A National Care Service is not being introduced now, and providers should plan on that basis. Baroness Casey's review will advise the government on how it should work. Until her report arrives, a great deal stays open.
What is still unanswered for providers?
Providers are still missing most of the practical detail. According to DAC Beachcroft, the speech did not explain how services would be commissioned, or how central government and local authorities would share the work. It did not say how independent and voluntary-sector providers would fit in either. And the overall cost was left out as well, so how provider fees would be calculated is still unknown.
Funding got one specific answer. The government will keep the state pension triple lock for the rest of this parliament, and if Labour wins the next general election, the mechanism would change in a few years' time, with the savings going towards the new service, though DAC Beachcroft notes this may not cover the full cost.
So a provider cannot yet price anything.
Nobody can say what a visit will be worth or who will pay for it. And that makes a hiring plan hard to justify to a finance director. Many boards would rather wait.
Why does care that starts in the home matter for hiring?
Care that starts in the home could shift the balance between home care and residential care, which would change the kind of manager providers need. DAC Beachcroft lists that balance as an open question for providers. Nor is it clear what role technology will play in delivering care at home. Both answers will shape who providers need to hire.
If the balance does move towards home care, the people who run those services will carry more weight than they do now. A branch manager in domiciliary care looks after a rota, a team of carers who work alone, and a stream of families who want answers.
It is a different job from running a building where everyone is under one roof, and I have met strong residential managers who found the move hard. They were used to seeing problems with their own eyes. In home care most of the day happens out of sight, so the manager has to build trust with people they rarely see. The skills are not always interchangeable.
What did the speech say about the care workforce?
The Prime Minister described care workers as holding together a threadbare system despite low pay. He said they had been overlooked and promised to do everything he could to change that.
But the speech set out no detail on pay, terms and conditions, or workforce structures. DAC Beachcroft expects workforce to be a key theme when the Casey report is published. Until then, providers have only the principle.
That leaves a gap of several years, and recognition is welcome, yet it does not fill a rota on a Tuesday morning in November.
Should providers wait for the Casey review?
Providers should not wait for the Casey review before planning management hires. Waiting feels sensible, because it is hard to plan a hire around a policy with no costs attached. But the managers you need in three years are the ones who can be approached now.
The registered manager is still the person the regulator, the commissioner and the family all look to. Whatever shape the new service takes, that role will not disappear, and a promise of more care at home puts more pressure on it.
There are practical steps that cost little. Look at which of your services depend on one manager with nobody ready behind them. Ask your deputies what they want to do next. And if you run both home care and residential services, work out which managers could lead either and which suit only one.
A provider I spoke to recently had done exactly this. Her two best deputies, she found, were both about a year from wanting a registered manager post elsewhere.
She would rather know that now than learn it when one of them hands in notice, and she has already started talking to both.
Where a specialist recruiter helps
Home care managers are a smaller pool than most people expect, and the good ones are rarely looking. A specialist who knows the sector can tell you who has run a branch with a dispersed team and who has only ever managed in one building. You cannot judge that from a CV.
It also means being honest with candidates, because nobody can promise what a National Care Service will mean for a role and the best managers will ask. A recruiter who knows the sector can have that conversation without overselling.
If you are planning a registered manager or branch manager hire, get in touch with our health and social care recruitment team and we can talk through what you need and what is realistic to find.
