At the end of last month, we revealed that the Chancellor for the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak received a letter from the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee demanding the delays to social care reform be stopped.
However, these pleas seemed to fall on deaf ears. As a result of the lack of response to the Committee’s report: Social care funding: time to end a national scandal which it commissioned in July 2019, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, head of the Committee has now written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
The report found that the social care sector was severely underfunded and riddled with unfairness. It recommended the Government immediately spends £8 billion to restore social care to acceptable standards and then introduces free personal care over a period of five years.
In his open and frank letter, Lord Forsyth, writes:
“The social care sector is on the frontline of the current public health crisis. This has only served to highlight that its career structure needs urgently to be put on an equal footing with that of NHS workers to recognise its social importance and the skills of its staff. Funding must be made fairer and sustainable for the benefit of this and future generations. Our report sets out how this can be achieved fairly and set out how much it would cost.”
Parliamentary convention states that the Government should respond to committee reports within two months – more than 11 months have elapsed since the publication of the Committee’s social care report.
Click here to read Lord Forsyth’s letter. The report, Social care funding: time to end a national scandal, can be found here.
