‘We need a fresh approach to tackle isolation’
MP: Loneliness exposes limits of welfare state
LONELINESS HAS become “structured into society” and fresh thinking on health and social care with “a new kind” of welfare system is needed if we are to make a concerted attack on the crisis, a Yorkshire MP will say today.
In a speech ahead of the launch of a major report on tackling the issue, Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves, co-chair of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, will tell London’s Policy Exchange that loneliness has escalated from “personal misfortune into a social epidemic”.
She will urge everybody to reexamine how they live their lives in an effort to combat the “epidemic” and set out a radical strategy for social, technological and political change needed to tackle what Mrs Cox herself described as the “shocking crisis” of loneliness.
Ms Reeves will say: “The crisis of loneliness exposes the limits of our welfare state. It is a deep challenge to our models of social reform. Top-down, target-driven, payment by results, bureaucratic Whitehall lever-pulling – they won’t work.
“We need a new kind of welfare system that acts as a convenor bringing people together to help them help themselves.”
The Yorkshire Post exclusively revealed that Mrs Cox, the then-Labour MP for Batley, was launching a cross-party commission to investigate loneliness on the second anniversary of our Loneliness: The Hidden Epidemic campaign in February last year. Just four months later Mrs Cox, who pledged to “blow the lid” on the loneliness crisis, was murdered in her constituency.
In the months after her death, her Labour colleague and friend Ms Reeves and Conservative MP for South Ribble Seema Kennedy did exactly that, and took forward her work as co-chairs of the Jo Cox Commission on Loneliness, which launched in January.
During her speech today, Ms Reeves will pay tribute to her friend and speak of her desire to tackling the “suffering” felt by those who are lonely.
She will say: “For Jo, however big and complex a problem there was always a solution to it. And loneliness is a big and complex problem.”
She will go on to say: “Loneliness has become a public health issue. Growing numbers of people are unable to respond to their loneliness and connect to others. And it is not just a personal problem. Loneliness has become structured into society and often we cannot overcome it without help. When we lose the social life of relationships we need, we are vulnerable to illness and death.”
Ms Reeves will say that no single big policy will defeat loneliness, but set out a detailed plan for change. “Social change needs millions of small changes,” she will say. “We need to create new institutions, services and organisations that connect people with one another. And we need to think how we can use new technologies to expand connectivity not social isolation and enrich rather than impoverish society.”
REGULAR READERS of The Yorkshire Post will be familiar with our awardwinning campaign to raise awareness about the devastating impact of loneliness in this country.
Its two main aims are for loneliness to be universally recognised as a health priority and to encourage more people to become volunteers for support services. Since its inception it has helped change perceptions and influence policy-makers.
It was an issue that Jo Cox took to her heart and championed so passionately before her senseless murder last year. This newspaper worked with Mrs Cox on a new crossparty commission to bring together experts in the field and investigate the scale of the loneliness crisis.
Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves has since picked up the baton and pressed on with the commission’s work and today she will tell London’s Policy Exchange that loneliness is no longer a personal misfortune that can befall individuals but has escalated into a “social epidemic”.
It is a stark warning but a necessary one. Ms Reeves says a fresh approach to health and social care is needed to tackle this issue and wants to see the introduction of a new kind of welfare system that brings people together and encourages them to help themselves.
Loneliness can, and does, afflict all strata of society irrespective of age, status, or background and as such it requires a radical, forward-thinking solution, and for that to happen we need politicians, healthcare bosses and leading charities to spearhead a co-ordinated plan of action.
It is approaching four years since we launched our campaign and while giant strides have been taken to make people more aware of this scourge of modern society, more work needs to be done, and Ms Reeves’s speech is a timely reminder of the scale of the challenge we face if we are to put an end to this harrowing social epidemic.