By Nick Mann | 3 January 2012
Care services minister Paul Burstow has responded to claims of a growing social care crisis by stressing that reform is an urgent priority for the government.
Credit: iStock
Charities, clinicians, unions and peers today warned that society was failing to meet increasing care challenges. In an open letter, 72 signatories, ranging from the chief executive of mental health charity Mencap to the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said the situation was leading to ‘terrible examples of abuse and neglect in parts of the care system’.
They added: ‘This comes at huge cost to the dignity and independence of older and disabled people, but also to our society, family life and the economy.’
The signatories called for political leadership to address the issue but said imminent cross-party talks on the future of care meant that ‘we are closer than ever to reaching a new consensus’.
The letter, published in the Daily Telegraph, urged the government and the other party leaders ‘to seize this opportunity for urgent, fundamental and lasting reform: delivering a social care system which can provide the well-funded and high-quality care and support we would all expect for ourselves and our families’.
In response, Burstow highlighted the £7.2bn extra funding allocated for social care over the course of the current Parliament as evidence that the government was ‘taking leadership’ on the issue.
A further £150m funding for the current financial year was also announced yesterday to support local authority social care services, he added.
Burstow also cited last year’s DilnotCommission report into the Funding of Care and Support and the government’s commitment to publish a social care white paper by April.
‘Over the past three months, we have been listening to people's views on their priorities for social care, including on the Dilnot and Law Commission recommendations,’ he said.
‘We'll bring forward a white paper and a progress report on funding reform in the spring setting out our plans.’
Labour’s shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, said he agreed with the call for reform and said he was ready to play a constructive part in the planned cross-party talks.
Labelling social care reform the ‘biggest public policy challenge this country faces’, he told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme that implementing the recommendations of the Dilnot Commission would be an ‘important first step’.
Burnham also criticised ‘brutal cuts’ being made to councils’ adult social care budgets and called on government to devise a sustainable solution.
