Transforming social care should be ‘an economic priority’

Labour’s Shadow Care Minister has called on the government to make transforming social care an economic priority in the same way as fixing infrastructure, such as the roads and railways.

In her first major speech as Shadow Care Minister, Liz Kendall is set 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 America, Kendall will call for a ten year plan of investment and reform to transform support for older and disabled people as part of Labour’s wider ambitions to make Britain the best country in which to grow up and grow old. She will also set out 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 vulnerable than it 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. This was compounded by a failure to grasp the deep rooted and long standing problems in our care system, which must be addressed if we are to build a care system that is fit for the future.

“We have a welfare state in the 2020s built on the life expectancy of the 1940s. When the NHS was created, average life expectancy for men was 63. Now it’s 80, and one in four babies born today are set to live to 100 years old. Our health and care system has struggled to keep pace with these changes, with social care in particular developing in a piecemeal, fragmented way.

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