TUC: austerity meant UK wasn’t ready for pandemic

In a report ahead of public hearings starting next week for the independent UK Covid-19 inquiry, the union group claimed the government’s austerity policies in the 10 years from 2010 left the country ‘hugely unprepared’ for the Covid pandemic, which hit the UK in early 2020.

As a result of pay freezes and pay caps, the average NHS worker was earning £3,000 less in real terms than in 2010, the report – Austerity and the pandemic – said. Wage losses were less dramatic in social care, but only because pay was already incredibly low. Many workers were paid at or close to the minimum wage, with jobs in supermarkets better paid.

The poor pay, coupled with stretched budgets and growing demand on services, contributed to higher levels of staff turnover. There was a vicious circle. Workforce pressures led to staff leaving, which in turn in turn increased the pressure on remaining staff.

According to the TUC the ‘unsafe staffing levels’ undermined the country’s response to the pandemic when it hit – nursing vacancies stood at 12% of the total nursing workforce in the first quarter of 2019/20. And over the decade, the number of nurses per capita in the UK had grown by less than 1%, in contrast to the OECD average which rose by 10%.

There were similar pressures for medical staffing. In 2020, nearly two-in-five NHS consultants were reporting a consultant vacancy in their department. The pressures of Covid – increased hours and the need to wear personal protective equipment – added to the demands on staff.

Meanwhile in social care, an already hard-pressed workforce had to cope with increased demand, poor guidance and the specific needs of often elderly and vulnerable service users.

The TUC also highlighted wider problems related to public service capacity, the social security safety net, and health and safety protections at work.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak (pictured) said the choices made by leaders before the pandemic needed to be put under the spotlight. ‘In the NHS and social care, funding cuts put staff levels in the danger zone,’ he said. ‘Cuts to social security pushed many more people below the poverty line, leaving them more vulnerable to infection. And cuts to health and safety left workers exposed to rogue employers who cut corners and put their lives at risk.’

He added: ‘Austerity cost the nation dearly. It left us hugely unprepared for the pandemic.’ And he called on the inquiry to ‘learn the lessons’ so that public services could be rebuilt to withstand a future crisis.

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive at NHS Providers agreed that the NHS entered the pandemic with disadvantages, adding that some of the problems continued today. ‘Successive years of pay caps and pay freezes in the run-up contributed to challenges for staff recruitment and retention, depleting the health and social care workforce,’ she said. ‘Worryingly, this is a persistent issue with nearly 280,000 gaps across both sectors unfilled and some unions still striking due to dissatisfaction with pay.’

She added that the promised long-term workforce plan for the NHS would go a long way to address staffing difficulties in the health service, as long as it was fully funded and costed But a similar plan was needed for social care too.