Johnson fails the care sector

Nosignofpromisedreformplan

BORIS JOHNSON’S record on social care is as confusing and contradictory as the Government’s false promises on Covid- 19 testing and so much more.

First, he promised – on the day that he became Prime Minister – to reform social care.

Then he, and his team, overlooked the needs of care homes, and staff, when Covid took hold; there was no protective ring.

Now, as the Government suggests the provision of weekly testing for care staff is one explanation for the national shortages, it emerges that any longerterm reforms are to be delayed until next year.

Perhaps understandable given that the immediate priority is to curtail the virulence of the virus, it nevertheless offers further evidence about the Prime Minister’s wider ambivalence.

This was confirmed by his excruciating non- response at Prime Minister’s Questions when Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, asked the PM to disclose the average hourly wage for a care worker.

Despite pointing out in response that it was a Tory government which introduced the National Living Wage – and that a Winter Care Plan is being published to ensure care homes have sufficient PPE and access to Covid testing – Mr Johnson was stumped.

Yet care homes are one of the key frontlines in the fight against Covid.

They are tasked with protecting the elderly and most vulnerable. And many were fighting for financial survival before the pandemic struck – hence Mr Johnson’s commitment on becoming PM to “fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared”.

But why has he not followed through on this? Or is this supposed readymade plan – it is now more than a year since Mr Johnson took office – now as elusive as the PM’s muchvaunted “oven- ready” Brexit deal? Either way, care residents, and staff, deserve better than this.