£1billion more to tackle social care crisis
BORIS Johnson has pledged an extra £1billion to help deal with England’s social care crisis.
The prime minister said there would be more money to come as part of a wholesale review of the care system.
The extra cash is part of a £3.5billion boost for town halls – the first real-terms rise in their budgets for a decade.
Downing Street said Wednesday’s announcement would be the ‘biggest, most generous spending review since the height of Tony Blair’s New Labour’.
‘We are putting a billion pounds more into social care to address that issue and there’ll be more – a huge amount of work is going into that now,’ Mr Johnson told the Sunday Times. The £1billion pledge for social care matches the amount demanded by the independent Health Foundation to stabilise the system and create a platform for necessary long-term changes.
The prime minister said the country ‘cannot wait’ for his domestic reforms, which is why he has prorogued Parliament to make way for a Queen’s Speech. He said: ‘We need to put a tiger in the tank, put our pedal to the metal, foot to the floor. We’re putting a huge amount into social care, into schools, into transport and education.’
The Daily Mail has highlighted our broken care system, which sees people having to pay the full cost of their care down to their last £23,250 – including the value of the family home. Last night, campaigners warned that Mr Johnson’s spending plans were not a substitute for real reform of social care.
An open letter from the leaders of Age UK, the Alzheimer’s Society, Carers UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and others called on the PM to deliver on his pledge made on his first day of office to publish a plan for the future of the system.
The charities demanded extra spending of ‘at least’ £1billion next year and more than twice as much the year after. The spending review on Wednesday will only cover 2020/21. The letter states: ‘Analysis from the Health Foundation shows the bare minimum additional spend to prevent further deterioration in social care would be £1billion in 2020/21 and £2.1billion in 2021/22.
‘It is imperative that at the spending review, the Chancellor invests at least this amount to help stabilise social care.
‘Without it, services will shrink further, leaving even more older, sick and disabled people without the help they need.
‘This must be followed up by the bold plan the Prime Minister has promised to place the social care system on a sustainable financial footing in the longer term to provide the help and security so many lack.’
The letter was also signed by the NHS Confederation, the British Red Cross, Diabetes UK, the Royal Voluntary Service, the Stroke Association and Versus Arthritis.