The immediate reaction and analysis to last week's long-awaited announcement on social care focused on the hypothecated rise in national insurance and how the extra revenue raised would be allocated to health and social care services. While arguments will persist through the Spending Review and beyond about both the sufficiency and immediacy of the financial support given to the social care sector, an equally pressing (and not entirely separate) problem is presenting itself.

Pre-pandemic it was estimated there were at least 120,000 social care vacancies, while the Government expects 40,000 care workers to leave the sector by the middle of November as a result of the requirement to be vaccinated. And then there is the impact of Brexit to consider.