Time for PM to honour his pledge to ‘fix it once and for all’

IN July 2019, Boris Johnson pledged in his first speech outside Downing Street: “I will fix social care once and for all.”

Nearly two years later, the Prime Minister’s promise remains unfulfilled.

So today we are launching a new campaign as like-minded charities, calling on him to put his pledge into action.

Of course, we appreciate the Government has had to

concentrate on the pandemic. But what has happened over this extraordinary period, the 40,000 deaths of care home residents above all, shows how important it is that we do indeed “fix social care”.

Social care was in no fit state to withstand Covid-19. Proper staffing and less reliance on agency workers would have made it considerably less challenging for care homes.

Hundreds of care workers sacrificed their lives after contracting the virus.

Now the restrictions are lifting the Government should address the future of social care. Improving care workers’ terms and conditions and giving them a proper career structure should be central to any plans.

So too should a big injection of public money, to start to replace all the funding lost through Government cuts in recent years.

Ministers are also committed to helping people who face sky-high bills when they need care for a long time, so that’s the third element of the package we expect to see.

Since the PM made his promise, an estimated two million requests for care have been rejected by local councils, as they struggle with woefully inadequate funding.

Nothing could better demonstrate why the Government must act to reform and refinance social care.