Problem is now critical... SO WHY THE DELAY?

LEADERSHIP often involves banging down doors and making trade- offs so that big issues are tackled headon. 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. 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