Little Sign Of Care In Queen’s Speech

The care of our oldest and most vulnerable has again been kicked into the long grass with little mention of social care in today’s Queen’s Speech.

The Independent Care Group, which represents care providers, had hoped there would be legislation set out to tackle a crisis which has left 1.4m without the care they need.

But the group’s chair, Mike Padgham says on the face of it another opportunity has gone by.

“By the looks of it, the Queen’s Speech was disappointing for social care. All we heard once again was a promise that proposals will be brought forward to reform social care to ensure dignity in old age,” he said.

“Isn’t that what we have been told now for years, as the social care Green Paper got kicked further and further down the road?”

He said the 1.4m people currently going without care deserved better than vague promises.

“We have had too many promises from government after government in the past and we need to have some concrete action,” he added.

“We deserve to have proper legislation set out for social care, as Boris Johnson promised when he was made Prime Minister, when he said he would solve social care once and for all. A General Election is almost certainly on the horizon and we need to hear proper proposals for social care now so that we can hold the political parties to account on delivering them.”