SOCIAL care leaders have called for a “step change” in the way the sector is understood and talked about by politicians.

In an open letter to party leaders co-ordinated by the Local Government Association, they say that workers have been struck by social care not being “as prominent as it should be in debates about the future of our communities.”

When it does feature, “it tends to be presented as a service that is broken and in need of being fixed or defined in narrow terms around questions about ‘who pays for social care?’”

The public must be given reasons to be hopeful about the future of social care, rather than alarmed by the challenges it faces, the letters’ authors add.

Signatories including Care England, Carers UK and the Care Provider Alliance National Care Forum, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services and Skills for Care urge political leaders to “avoid the trap of politicising the debate about the future of care and support.

“We all know from experience that the net result of that is greater apathy and disappointment,” the coalition says.

“Instead, extol the virtues and value of care and support as we have described them above.

“Recognise the role of social care at every level of society. Give people reasons to be hopeful, not alarmed. Above all, make adult social care about all of us.”

A separate letter to party leaders co-ordinated by the Care and Support Alliance argues that it will be a “betrayal” if action is not taken by the next government.

The alliance, which represents more than 50 of Britain’s leading charities, writes: “Promise that you will make change happen in the next parliament, come up with sustainable funding and support the social care workforce.

“Millions of older and working-aged disabled people and their carers desperately need a social care system that works, and a failure to act would be a betrayal.”

Both the Tories and Labour have indicated that they plan to go ahead in October 2025 with imposing a previously announced cap on social care costs of £86,000 on the amount that anyone in England has to spend on their personal care over their lifetime.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting admitted at the weekend that he would have liked Labour’s manifesto, which pledges to work towards the creation of a national care service over a decade, to be “more ambitious” on social care.