Elderly care isn’t women’s work, says Labour

CARING for elderly parents should not be seen as “women’s work”, Labour has said, as the party set out its plans for a “home first” care plan.

Liz Kendall, the shadow minister for social care, said caring for older people is viewed as “women’s work, ideally left to families”, rather than as employment in its own right.

If families “can’t cope or aren’t around”, then care is provided by “some of the lowest paid workers in this country, the vast majority of whom are women, with many from black and minority ethnic communities,” she told the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services yesterday.

Ms Kendall called for a “home first” care policy, with government investment in home adaptations to allow people to grow old in their own homes.

“We are always going to need residential and nursing homes, but the vast majority of people want to stay in their own homes for as long as possible.

“Yet too many struggle to get even the basic support or home adaptations that make this possible,” she said.

Ministers are considering whether to include social care reforms in next month’s Queen’s Speech, which would put it on the agenda for the next session of Parliament. Boris Johnson promised a care review at the 2019 election, but has since admitted work on the policy has been delayed by the pandemic.

Speaking to Parliament’s Liaison Committee in January, Mr Johnson said plans for reform would be announced “later this year”, but the high costs of social care reform could delay any plans until later in this Parliament.

Yesterday Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary and chair of the health and social care select committee, criticised the “terrible unfairness” of elderly people spending their life savings on care. “There is an unfairness there that goes against everything that the NHS stands for and that we as a country stand for,” he said.