How social care is funded is the hot potato nobody seems to want to pick up. Everyone knows it is a major looming problem and any solution is likely to be painful and costly – for families, taxpayers or those in need of care. Politicians know there is little popularity to be had in confronting the public with hard truths, even more so since attempting to do so was a major factor in Theresa May’s catastrophic general election campaign.

One of the ways we muddle on, in the view of many charities, is by exploiting their reluctance to turn their backs on those they were set up to help – despite budgets which they say are regularly unrealistic and unsustainable.

The fact increasing numbers are choosing to do just that should therefore be worrying for anyone who wants to see the right support available for people who need it.

A report by academics at Strathclyde University examined why. Charities which have withdrawn from contracts say in some cases the deficits they were accumulating were threatening their overall viability. They are having to subsidise the public services they provide because overheads such as travel time, sick pay and training are not properly accounted for in the rates on offer. The widespread practice of offering a place in a list to provide services rather than guaranteed work, is effectively a giant zero hours contract, it is claimed.

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ome of the alleged behaviour by commissioning bodies such as councils and health and social care partnerships seems borderline immoral. Charities claim they are routinely pressurised by being told they are the most expensive bidders – only for rivals to be told the same. Ministers responsible for Fair Work policies should be concerned that more than one charity has been urged to cut the time spent with clients in order to pay staff the Scottish Living Wage.

Charities say they are suffering, financially and reputationally, but so are their staff and ultimately those in need of social care. At present they are reluctant to name the commissioners most at fault, but it may come to that.

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Commissioners are themselves wrestling with inadequate budgets and overwhelming demand. If so, they should perhaps stop pretending that what is on offer is enough. Then we could have a real debate about what social care we want and how much we are all prepared to pay for it.