A Scarborough Care Sector Leader says that the Government paid lip service to social care in today’s Queen’s Speech
The Independent Care Group (ICG) say it is furious that plans for social care reform were once again delayed as the Government set out its plans this afternoon. It is calling for plans to be set out immediately and the Government to be held accountable for their delivery. It says the Government is "betraying hundreds of thousands of older and vulnerable people who cannot get the care they need."
ICG Chair Mike Padgham said:
“How dare the Government delay reform of social care yet again?
“Older and vulnerable people have been betrayed and reform has been pushed down the road to some indeterminate time.
“Yes, social care was mentioned in the Queen’s Speech but in reality, the Government was just paying lip service to the reform that is now so long overdue.
“If the Government is so committed to reforming social care, as the Prime Minister and other ministers keep telling us they are then we need to see it happen. We need some accountability and the Government to be held to account if it fails to deliver."
In the Queen’s Speech the Government said it would bring forward proposals on social care reform.
But Mr Padgham said that wasn’t good enough, he added :
“We have had too many promises and pledges, we now need to see action,”
“We need the Government to set out what it plans to do and set strict deadlines as to when it is going to do it, so that it is accountable to the hundreds of thousands of people who are being failed by this Government today and every day.”
Before the Queen’s Speech, the ICG wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to put the welfare and happiness of people before financial constraints and make social care reform a priority.
In the ICG’s letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Padgham says 1.5m people are now living without the care they need after £8bn was cut from social care budgets since 2010-11. There are more than 100,000 staff vacancies in the sector.
The ICG wants to see a promise of urgent reform backed by proper deadlines. It wants:
- A root and branch overhaul of the way social care is planned and funded
- NHS care and social care to be merged and managed either locally or nationally
- Extra funding for social care, funded by taxation or National Insurance
- Dementia treated like other high priority illnesses, like cancer and heart disease
- A fixed percentage of GDP to be spent on social care
- Social care businesses to be zero-rated for VAT.
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