JEREMY HUNT: Social care problem is critical – so why delay fixing it?

JEREMY HUNT: Our social care problem is now critical… so why the delay in fixing it?

Leadership often involves banging down doors and making trade-offs so that big issues are tackled head-on. 

Boris Johnson has defied the sceptics and done just that with Brexit.

Voters clearly believe he will do it again when it comes to ‘levelling up’ as evidenced by his stunning victory in Hartlepool last week.

But one thing was missing from yesterday’s otherwise packed Queen’s Speech: concrete plans on social care.

If ever there was an area we need the same bulldozer spirit to crack a problem that has been ducked by government after government, it is the way we look after older people.

I share part of the responsibility for that lack of progress: as health secretary I took legislation through the House of Commons in 2014 to establish a cap on care costs that would mean people didn’t have to sell their home.

I was proud to do so – but then went along with a Treasury request to delay implementation till 2020. 

Subsequently, I fought for a ten-year plan for the social care sector to go alongside the one I secured for the NHS. I was told it would follow – but it never did.

The one bright spot was an unexpected mention of social care in Boris’s words on the steps of Downing Street the day after he defeated me in the Conservative leadership contest: ‘My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care and so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve.’

Wonderful words – and followed up this spring with an encouraging promise to the Commons liaison committee that we will see that long-awaited ten-year plan later this year. 

Bosses at the Alzheimer’s Society, said the Government needed a concrete plan for the 850,000 people with dementia in the UK.’ Pictured: Library image of a woman caring for an elderly relative

I am in no doubt about the Prime Minister’s personal commitment – but remain concerned we still have no details on what those plans for the social care sector are.

So why the delay? We all understand the sorry state of public finances after the pandemic, but most of the costs of social care reform will not kick in for several years allowing plenty of time for the economy to recover. 

Nor is cross-party agreement necessary as all the major parties already support the Dilnot principles on the statute book. All it needs now is political will.

Although it was a Labour government that set up the NHS in 1948, it was actually a Conservative health minister, Sir Henry Willink, who first proposed the idea in 1944.

Fixing social care is our ‘1948 moment’ – the chance to make a major reform that will last generations and stand the test of time. 

Winston Churchill supported the setting up of the NHS all those years ago so, in his spirit, it is time to end the delay and commit to ‘action this day’.

  • Jeremy Hunt MP is the chairman of the Commons health and social care committee

When WILL they show they care? Boris Johnson faces backlash after failing to honour his pledge to fix Britain’s broken social care system… and devoted just NINE WORDS to it in the Queen’s Speech

By Daniel Martin, Policy Editor for the Daily Mail 

The promise they never keep… 

September 1997 – Tony Blair: ‘I don’t want [our children] brought up in a country where the only way pensioners can get long-term care is by selling their home’.

January 2013 – David Cameron: ‘We’ll set out big new steps on some of the hardest and most important long-term issues that will shape the future for generations to come… On social care, capping the potentially huge costs of long-term care faced by many families today.’

April 2015 – Conservative Manifesto: ‘We will guarantee that you will not have to sell your home to fund your residential social care.’

April 2017 – Theresa May: ‘We need to ensure we have got that long-term solution for a sustainable future for social care.’

July 2019 – Boris Johnson: ‘My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from from having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care. And so I’m announcing now that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared.’ 

And yesterday, in just nine words, kicked into long grass again: ‘Proposals on social care reform will be brought forward.’ 

Boris Johnson faced a massive backlash tonight after devoting just nine words to social care in the Queen’s Speech.

Measures to reform long-standing funding issues were absent from the list of 30 Bills announced in Parliament yesterday.

Despite lengthy negotiations, No 10 and the Treasury have been unable to reach agreement on a strategy to limit the amounts pensioners have to pay toward their own care.

It meant the Queen was unable to say any more than: ‘Proposals on social care reform will be brought forward.’

The glaring omission of any detail comes despite figures revealing that 10,000 people have been financially crippled while waiting for Mr Johnson to fix the crisis. Charities, experts and MPs condemned yet another delay in the introduction of a credible plan.

Tory MP Damian Green, who worked on social care reform as Theresa May’s deputy, said: ‘I am absolutely insistent that this needs to be the year for action and decision rather than kicking the can down the road any further.’

Mr Johnson promised imminent reform when he became Prime Minister in July 2019. Standing outside No 10, he said: ‘My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care.

‘And so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve.’

But nothing has been forthcoming, aside from a promise that plans would brought forward by the end of 2021.

Under England’s present broken care system, pensioners have to pay the full cost of their care down to their last £23,250.

This includes the value of their property, meaning thousands of parents are unable to pass on the family home to their children.

An average of 15 people a day see their savings wiped out after being landed with sky-high bills for their care, an analysis by Age UK found.

The charity estimated that in the 657 days since Mr Johnson became Prime Minister, some 10,000 people have lost almost all the money they have saved during their life.

Age UK last night said his delay in implementing a plan has had far-reaching effects.

Charity director Caroline Abrahams said: ‘It’s patently unfair that if you need a lot of care for a long time the gigantic cost could take away all you’ve worked hard for throughout your life.

Boris Johnson faced a massive backlash last night after devoting just nine words to social care in the Queen’s Speech

Despite lengthy negotiations, No 10 and the Treasury have been unable to reach agreement on a strategy to limit the amounts pensioners have to pay toward their own care. It meant the Queen (pictured yesterday) was unable to say any more than: ‘Proposals on social care reform will be brought forward’

‘Yet this is the reality for 15 people every day, who face complete ruin, just because they lost the lottery over who develops expensive care needs in later life, and who never requires any care support at all.

‘It’s shocking that 10,000 people have been left penniless by their care bills since the Prime Minister promised to “fix social care”.

‘Nothing could demonstrate more clearly why it’s time for the Government to take action, so no one has to bear such a huge financial risk alone ever again, leaving them essentially to be thrown to the wolves because of factors that were totally beyond their control.’

She added: ‘As things are at the moment it’s as though we punish people who have assets and who need long-term care when we should be offering them our full support.

‘It’s bad enough trying to come to terms with growing incapacity and physical and mental decline, without also worrying sick that you could run out of money and be left penniless, at one of the most challenging times in your life.’

A briefing note from No 10, accompanying the Queen’s Speech, said the Government would engage with care staff about how best to help the 1.5million-strong workforce and ensure reform was ‘informed by diverse perspectives’.

The document noted that costs are unpredictable, can be very high and that ‘not all the risk is shared across society’.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents independent care providers, said the Queen’s Speech was a missed opportunity.

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents independent care providers, said the Queen’s Speech was a missed opportunity

‘Without the much-needed, not to mention heralded, reform it is questionable as to how much longer the sector can be expected to limp on,’ he said.

‘A sector that supports and employs vast swathes of the population cannot be ignored.’

Liz Kendall, Labour’s social care spokesman, said: ‘Older people who helped make this country what it is, and who are now seeing their life savings wiped out to pay for care, deserve more than a paltry nine words in the Queen’s Speech. 

‘Mr Johnson needs to wake up to the fact we cannot build a better country as we emerge from this awful pandemic without a decent system of social care.

Liz Kendall, Labour’s social care spokesman, said: ‘Older people who helped make this country what it is, and who are now seeing their life savings wiped out to pay for care, deserve more than a paltry nine words in the Queen’s Speech.’

‘After the horror of what happened in care homes during Covid-19 this should have been the Prime Minister’s top priority, not once again kicked into the long grass. Our elderly people deserve better.’

Sir Andrew Dilnot, the architect of a decade-old plan for a lifetime cap on the amount individuals have to pay, said he would have liked to have seen details in the Queen’s Speech but the emergence of a clear timetable was ‘encouraging’.

‘Now it’s up to the Government to bring up a set of proposals that will bring in a social care system we can be proud of,’ he added.

Gavin Terry, head of policy at the Alzheimer’s Society, said the Government needed a concrete plan for the 850,000 people with dementia in the UK.’

A spokesman for No 10 said: ‘Throughout the pandemic we have sought to protect the elderly and the most vulnerable and this will remain our priority as we look to end the care lottery and make sure people receive high-quality, joined-up care.

‘We are committed to bringing forward a long-term plan to reform the social care system and we will set out proposals later this year.’ 

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