Fury over delays to “do or die” social care reform

The decision to cancel a “do or die” social care meeting between Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Matt Hancock has provoked a bitter backlash, with social care leaders saying pensioners can no longer afford to wait for the plans.

In his first speech as Prime Minister in July 2019, Johnson said: “We will fix the crisis in social care once and for all – with a clear plan we have prepared.” 

But two years later, the PM has failed to meet his repeated promises to lay out cross-party plans to reform social care.

A “do or die” social care policy meeting between the PM, the chancellor and the health secretary to discuss cross-party social care reforms had been scheduled for this week, but is understood to have been cancelled – casting further doubts on any major breakthrough on the plans.

Downing Street said talks with other political parties would not begin until the government’s plans have been revealed. 

Yesterday, Johnson once again pledged to bring forward “good plans” on social care during a visit to a laboratory in Hertfordshire.

He insisted: “Social care workers have borne the brunt of the pandemic and we have got to improve it, and we will. We will be bringing forward some good plans in due course.”

But the latest delay sparked fury among social care leaders and politicians. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: “This delay is really bad news for older people because doing nothing just prolongs their misery.” She said that for every week the decision is delayed, another 13,000 pensioners will be denied state care.

James White, head of campaigns at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Two years ago, Boris Johnson promised in his first speech as prime minister that he would fix the deep-rooted problems in our social care system. Today was yet another day when this didn’t happen. This inaction lets down the 850,000 people living with dementia and their families, who simply can’t afford to wait any longer.”

The decision to cancel the meeting comes amid reports of a disagreement between Johnson and Sunak over funding of social care plans. According to The Times, Johnson is blocking rises for income tax, VAT and national insurance to pay for social care, making it “extremely difficult” for the chancellor to find the £10 billion needed.

Writing for the Daily Mail Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary who now chairs the Commons health committee, urged the Prime Minister to ignore the “national bean counters” and devote sufficient resources to social care.

Calling the meeting between Johnson, Sunak and Hancock “a do or die moment for social care”, Hunt argued it would be a false economy to limit spending, given the knock-on effects of insufficient care provision on the NHS.

Sir Andrew Dilnot, who wrote a 2011 government-commissioned report into social care reform, also called on the Prime Minister to be “generous” when it came to the shake-up of the system. 

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The amounts of money we’re talking about are not huge, and the impact this has on people’s lives is massive.”

He said that “a maximum of about £10 billion a year, most of which is going to have to be spent anyway,” would equate to an extra one per cent of public spending, and that this would “take us from a system that we should all be ashamed of, to a system we could be proud of.”

Writing for The Times, Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth, said: “Not only did ministers fail to throw in a protective ring round care homes in this crisis with tragic consequences, the pandemic has also brought to the foreground the devastating impact of deep cuts to social care over the past 11 years.”

He said: “Johnson’s rhetoric stands empty without a serious plan to fix social care.”