Labour Accused Of Missing Social Care Opportunity
The Labour Party today missed a golden opportunity to make reform of the way the country looks after its most vulnerable a key General Election pledge.
The party has unveiled its plan for improvements to NHS healthcare but failed to mention social care reform.
The provider organisation, the Independent Care Group (ICG) said that was a serious omission as the two needed to be improved together.
ICG Chair Mike Padgham said:
“It is hugely disappointing that again social care has been left out in the cold and we call on Labour to immediately set the record straight and tell us what it will do about the way we look after our most vulnerable. Reforming the NHS without reforming social care would be pointless.
“Both Labour and the Conservatives are remaining frighteningly quiet on social care and it can’t go on. We are heading into the second week of the campaign and social care has not been mentioned at all, which is making all of us worry that the politicians are afraid of it or do not see it as a vote winner.
“They are wrong. 80% of us will need social care in one form or another in our lifetime and demand for care is growing. We expect the number of people with dementia to top a million next year and reach 1.6m people by 2040. We will need a further 440,000 carers by 2035.
“The country isn’t ready for that wave of extra social care demand that is heading towards us and sadly the Labour Party has shown today that it is not willing to say what it will do to cope.
“It is time for all of the parties to stop running away from social care and tell the country what they plan to make sure older and vulnerable adults are properly looked after in the future.”
Some 1.6m people currently can’t get care, there are 152,000 social care staff vacancies and providers of homecare and residential care are leaving the sector.
In its Five Pillars for Social Care Reform document, which has been sent to all the main political party leaders, the ICG suggests ring-fencing a percentage of GDP for care, creating a National Care Service, setting a minimum carer wage, establishing a task force for reform and creating fair tariffs for services such as care beds and homecare visits.
