Backlash on social care reform delay

HEALTH Secretary Steve Barclay said the UK Government has not abandoned the promised reforms of social care in England as he acknowledged the NHS was under “severe pressure”.

Mr Barclay insisted the pressures on the NHS were “predominantly” to do with the pandemic, but admitted the entire crisis could not be blamed on Covid-19.

It comes in the wake of an autumn statement that saw Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announce the health service will receive an extra £3.3bn in each of the next two years while £4.7bn will go into social care.

However, the Government has also faced criticism for the decision to push back long-promised social care reforms to October 2025.

The reforms include an £86,000 cap on personal care cost contributions and an expanded means test that is more generous than the existing one, which had been due to come into effect from October 2023.

Mr Barclay said it was a “difficult decision to delay” but told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that current circumstances had forced the decision.

He said: “The Chancellor himself – when doing my job as health secretary – was very committed to these reforms. That’s why it has been a difficult decision to delay but what we recognise is we need more care packages in social care.”

Pressed on how the delay could be justified, he said: “Well, the local government bodies have themselves asked us to delay because, obviously, they were concerned about such a major change at a time when, as a consequence of a pandemic, the market is under such pressure within the care system.”

On Sky News, he also signalled plans to scale back the number of NHS targets.

“There is a place for targets but if everything is a priority, nothing’s a priority,” he said as he responded to a report in the Mail on Sunday suggesting the Government was eyeing up a “bonfire” of NHS red tape and targets.

He said that at a local level officials are “better able to tailor the priorities for their local needs”.

“No-one is suggesting we don’t have any targets,” he said.

It comes amid warnings the NHS is likely to remain on a “crisis footing”, with rising waiting lists despite extra funding.