Sheffield MPs call for social care reforms

Louise Haigh MP for Sheffield Heeley, and Paul Blomfield, MP for Sheffield Central, both criticised Boris Johnson, prime minister, for failing to keep his word on plans to take action on the crisis.

It comes on a backdrop of £8 billion in cuts from council care budgets over the past decade – despite growing demand – low pay for staff, a lack of staff and figures that show one in seven adults are unable to get the care they need.

Ms Haigh warned this is likely to worsen still with an ageing population.

She said: “The Covid pandemic has brought to light what many of us have been arguing for years – that social care is in desperate need of reform and long-term investment…

“By refusing to provide a long-term strategy for social care, the Government is letting down the millions of people who receive care now and millions more will come to rely on it in the years ahead…

“Post-Covid, tackling England’s social care crisis should be treated as an economic priority in the same way as fixing infrastructure such as the roads and railways.”

It follows the Queen’s Speech last week in which Ms Haigh said the government announced no plan as promised and no new funding for social care.

In Parliament earlier this week, Mr Blomfield addressed the prime minister with the same concerns and held him to account for this statement Mr Johnson previously made on the steps of 10 Downing Street: “We will fix the crisis in social care once and for all…with a clear plan that we have prepared.”

Mr Blomfield said: “I hope that the Minister will come clean and say whether there ever was a clear and prepared plan – or admit the prime minister was just making it up, intending to wing it as usual… and dashing the hopes of the millions affected by the failure of the current system?

“The pandemic has shone a spotlight on the crisis in social care… but the failure of the system has been clear for a long time.

“There have been attempts to address it…but torpedoed by party politics .

“Now the PM has said that he wants cross-party working to resolve the issue – and that’s right.

“If he means it, he could share his plan, which has apparently been gathering dust in a drawer for two years.”

He said it needed an entirely new model and not just “tinkering with payment mechanisms” that should be viewed in the same way as the NHS with a comprehensive system of high standard residential and domiciliary care that ensured no one is denied support because they cannot afford it.

Mr Blomfield outlined steps that need to be taken to improve the sector including raising the status of carers to that of nurses and equivalent healthcare professionals with training, support and better pay; developing a plan in partnership with carers and those in need of care; and do more to support carers, especially the “invisible army” of young carers.

He said it will be expensive but an “honest and realistic” national debate about the costs of reforming the care system and who pays the price was needed that does not brand proposals as a “death tax” or a “dementia tax” – or talk about unaffordability.

The Alzheimer’s Society is also demanding a reform to social care through its Cure the Care Sytem campaign and recently shared said dementia in Sheffield is predicted to rise by 47 per cent.

It said NHS Digital figures show that 4,446 older people in Sheffield have a dementia diagnosis, however the number of those living with the condition is estimated to be around 6,313.

Research by the Society predicted that number will swell to 9,290 in 2030.

The charity also estimated the total cost of caring for people with dementia in Sheffield to be of around £275 million, with the figure expected to increase to £410 million by 2030.

Kate Lee, chief executive officer at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Lack of time and dementia-specific training among the often overworked and underpaid care workforce means people with dementia aren’t getting the support they need to live.

“From the man with dementia forced to choose between a hot meal and a wash during a home care visit, to the woman rushed to hospital dehydrated because carers weren’t trained in dementia – poor care is all too common.

“Decades of chronic underfunding and neglect have led to a care system that’s difficult to access, costly, inadequate, and deeply unfair.

“This cannot be the kind of society that we expect today and that we want to grow old in.”

Ms Haigh said Labour was calling for a 10 year plan of investment and reform to transform support for older and disabled people, empowering them to live independently for as long as possible while giving care users and their families greater say and control.

She said it would focus on shifting support towards prevention and early help and link up with health and social care services to deliver a properly integrated system and improving pay, training and working conditions for staff.

Ms Haigh added: “It is possible and, indeed, necessary to bring about these changes and overhaul our social care system. Doing so will improve life for millions of people – but it will require levels of ambition and action from Government which has so far been entirely lacking.”

The Department for Health and Social Care said the reform and funding arrangements are complex and options to deliver the commitment are under consideration.

“We have pledged to improve adult social care to give everyone who needs care the dignity and security they deserve and are committed to bringing forward a long-term plan to reform the social care system later this year.”