DO THEY NOT CARE?

Another week, another call for urgent action to tackle underfunding and staff shortages in social care.

Which got me thinking: when was the last time you saw a Tory minister, or PM, even, visit a local authority care home?

Or drop in on someone subjected to the measly 15 minutes of at-home care per day allocated by their local council? When will proper headway be made to dent this problem and its knock-on impact on families and the NHS?

When will care staff be valued in the way they should, i.e. more than £7.50 per hour? When will they finally have had enough and in unison shout out “We couldn’t care less”. When is a proper plan of action going to emerge, before we’re submerged by a tide of indifference?

Would it be such a bad idea to scrap National Insurance (a tax by any other name) and replace it with a boosted National Health and Social Care tax, accompanied by higher quality health and care services? Better that, surely, than having to sell our homes to fund ‘care’ in homes operating often with only profit in mind.