Transforming social care ought to be 'an economic priority'

Labour’s Shadow Care Minister has called on the government to create transforming social care a fiscal priority in the same manner as fixing infrastructure, like the roads and railways.

In her initial speech as Shadow Care Minister, Liz Kendall is placed to tell the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services’ Spring Conference that failing to invest in social infrastructure is more damaging than neglecting the UK’s physical infrastructure.

Citing President Biden’s approach in the usa, Kendall will call for a 120 month plan of investment and reform to change support for older and disabled people included in Labour’s wider ambitions to create Britain the best country in which to develop and grow old. She'll also put down Labour’s priorities for a care system that puts ‘home first’ by shifting support towards prevention and early help.

Kendall will say: “When the virus struck, our care system was more susceptible of computer ever should have been. The Conservatives weakened its foundations with an £8 billion cut from local authority social care budgets since 2010, despite growing demand. It was compounded with a failure to grasp the deep rooted and traditional problems within our care system, which should be addressed as to build a care system that's fit for the future.

“There exists a welfare state in the 2021s built on the life span of the 1940s. When the NHS was created, average life span for men was 63. Now it’s 80, and something in four babies born today are going to live to 100 years old. Our overall health and care system has struggled to keep pace with one of these changes, with social care particularly developing inside a piecemeal, fragmented way.

“Among the underlying causes of this is that caring just isn’t valued like other professions. It’s viewed as women’s work, mostly left to families, and if they can’t cope supplied by a few of the lowest paid workers in this country – the vast majority of whom are women, with many from Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities.”