In anticipation of today's announcement of a Commission into social care by Wes Syreetinmg, The Health Foundation undertook a review of previous reviews, reports and commissions into the issue. This is their summary of those over the last 25 years:
As they said in the summary to their report:
Adult social care in England desperately needs reform and investment. Amid reports the government is considering a new Royal Commission to establish cross-party consensus on social care reform, we look back at the approaches and proposals of previous similar reviews.
Overall, these policy reviews have made little headway towards tackling the problems in social care. Whether this government's attempt at reform succeeds where others have failed will depend largely on political will and committing to providing the long-term investment needed.
Streeting has indicated three things with his announcement:
- There will be no money for any planned changes, or he would have adopted previous recommendations.
- He has no desire to solve this problem, or he could use the previous reports as the basis for making progress.
- He wants this issue to be left for the next government, post 2029, to solve.
In summary, he has no political will or long-term commitment to solve this problem. That summarises just about everything that needs to be known about Wes Streeting.
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Yet another occasion where Starmer’s LINO show their inability to take on difficult tasks if spending money is required.
They really are bloody useless. When Reeves is eventually ejected due to failure, I suspect the next incumbent of No. 11 will continue on the same tack.
How do we end up with so many inept politicians across the political spectrum? It would be nice to be a serious country once again.
I feel we don’t get the intelligent, hard working politicians we need because they wouldn’t ever want to work with the politicians and processes already in place. It would be soul destroying for anyone with intelligence and integrity to be genuinely trying to achieve good things in Westminster’s faux democracy.
Easier, and more profitable, for them to work in the private sector?
More and more I see told, and believe, that the leaders are not calling the tune anyway, but that another force is. The abomination of providing surveillance of Gaza for Israel and weaponry for Ukraine, with neither of these things being even mentioned in Parliament, makes me feel it doesn’t matter who we vote for – we get US/western power and privatisation politics.
I am not concentrating need by that theory.
I believe that there is a co-ordinated attempt to influence agendas, and politicians have bought the agenda being sold, but this is an intellectual/money agenda and not a super-power issue.
This issue was flagged at least 30 years ago. I co-authored a paper in 1993 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/41141143) which raised the issues and possible solutions. It was well received and discussed with the Health Select Committee and No 10 Policy Unit. Much the same as with the climate emergency – we knew and did nothing. Frustration doesn’t begin to describe it
I think you are right to be frustrated.
Wow, what a roll call of failure and buck-passing that list is.
That is a great list – if just to show that we are governed by cowards and liars.
The list needs to go viral.
The thing is no government – given what they know about us – can pretend that they did not see this coming, that ‘baby booms’ would lead to pensioner booms and that better health care would have helped us to live longer, especially with chronic conditions.
This is a major point – no one has wanted to deal with this because the reality is the ageing population has made it something that will take a LOT of money and reversal of privatisation of care provision.
It’s seen as ‘an impossible’ situation. They will leave it and, (probably Reform UK after 2029) will pass legislation that makes care means tested and those ‘baby boomers’ who are the ageing population will have to sell their homes to pay for basic care as they grow old.
There will be scandal after scandal and no one will take responsibity.
Much to agree with
Much social care is run (badly, for profit) by private equity, often American.
Labour ‘s love affair with the likes of Blackrock and Palantir, not to mention United Health (oops, I just did), means they will never threaten the wealth extractors.
Staff MUST be shafted and patients MUST suffer if dollars MUST accumulate.
Nationalise without compensation and fund it properly.
Governments can do what ever they want if they have the political will.
They can sell arms to Israel, lock up protesters against genocide, dig holes in the ground. Why not spend some time and money developing a conscience?
Yes, it’s just words. A review could be completed in months and recommendations could be implemented this year with the necessary will and commitment.
I have an adult autistic son in care.There used to be a desperate morale crisis with poorly paid carers leaving for alternative better paid and less demanding jobs. The charity that owns his home and provides carers is running a deficit surviving by supporting cash flow with loans and asset sales. The root cause is reduced council funding. Some care organisations have already followed more will follow.
You are right
I hope your son will be ok.
“The root cause is reduced council funding.”
Nail, meet hammer.
I’m not sure what there is to review to be honest. We have more than fit for purpose primary legislation in the Care Act 2014. The problem is and remains the currency issuing central government refusing to provide adequate funding so local councils can meet the statutory obligations parliament have required of them.
Three years to kick the funding can down the road because LINO subscribe to the key tenets of neoliberal government:
#1 Because Markets
#2 Go die
(With props to Lambert of Naked Capitalism for the above)
The problems more fundamental – it is that virtually teh whole of the provision of social care has been outsourced to the private sector sector and a significant %. of that is now Private Equity. If the Local Authority had more money it would just go to boost Private equity’s profits. The majority of the sector needs to be taken back into actual hands on provision by the State not merely the State paying for a lot of it. Private Equity should be banned from anything to with. Care Provision.
Much to agree with
Pretending to care is one of the tactics the rich get their politician gophers to use to “groom” the electorate.
The problem is that politicians either are just PR operatives, keeping the public as quiescent as possible; or passing legislation with the deliberate, calculated purpose of misleading the public. Why are Statutes misleading? Because passing the legislation does not entail providing the resources to implement the legislation; and therefore most legislation falls far short, or totally fails. Why do politicians do it, then? Because it takes years for the public to realise the legislation isn’t working; and they have been duped, and if discovered, the politicians then claim nobody knew, or understood the problem, or the problem was actually something different: and the political circus and its band of clowns safely moves on to the next scam.
There are only two purposes that government passes legislation or takes a decision and actually commits the required resources:
1) Fighting a war. Nobody tells the PM; still less the public we have no money to fight. Ever.
2) The 1833 Act of Emancipation of the slaves, and the end of slavery in the British Empire. That cost Britain the largest increase in the National Debt undertaken to that date; or proportionally one of the largest increases, ever outside World War. The money was to compensate the slave owners for the loss of their property (a free gift from the Government); with the biggest transfer of wealth from the public coffers to the private sector. The slave owners didn’t even lose the slave labour; the manumitted slaves were compelled to continue working for the plantation owners, as ‘apprentices’, in conditions that were almost uncchanged. The manumitted slaves received absolutely no compensation at all, and were not consulted about the terms of emancipation. It remains the only piece of legislation ever conducted that was fully funded, executed with formidble precision, and completed as promised in the legislation.
And that is how Britain still works. The Government can deliver what it intends to deliver; it is a matter of what it chooses to prioritise, and precisely whom it wishes to serve. British Governments are still filleting the public for which it is responsible; this time not for slave owners, but for neoliberalism. Like the slaves, the Government knows its Masters.
So Darzi’s review of the NHS took about three months but the review of Social Care will take three years! Definitely kicked into the long grass.
This is an issue the public care about.
Everyone is connected to it – we will get old, our parents get old, we have dependents with special care needs, disability, sickness.
I hope we can get angry and get organised.
The focus should be on our MPs, and it should be relentless, focussed, united, creative, attention-grabbing, and very very angry, using every possible avenue to embarrass them.
Especially the Sec of State for Health & Social Care and his ministerial team.
“he has no political will or long-term commitment to solve this problem”.
Then why is Wes Streeting the “Secretary of State for Health and Social Care”?
If Wes Streeting did not want the job, will not do the job and/or does not have the ability to do the job, then why did Keir Starmer give him this job in the first place?
He wants the power
And Starmer wants him as the right wing heir to keep the left out
That’s it
I would pay more tax/NI (inc NI on my current pension). To have a properly structured social care system as part of the NHS.
Now women have to work until they are 67 it is a necessity.
Social care – however vile – was part of the Poor Law in some form or other between 1603 and the 1950s ( sorry I am a bit shaky about the end). So who took it away and why??
I think if ideas were properly sold people would pay.
Surely with MMT, they shouldn’t have to pay. The money can be created can’t it?
I’ve spent some time today trying to convince stupid people on social media that the NHS doesn’t need to be ‘broke’…
This subject can’t be left without mention about the deliberate break up of the National Health Service into 42 Integrated Care Systems (i.e. US-style Accountable Care Organisations by any other name) which are having their budgets reduced in real terms every year.
So they are denying regional health services investment, privatising services and leaving social care to county councils – many of which are admitting bankruptcy.
When will we ever see truthful articles in the mainstream media? Why do they all continue to sing the government/dark space’s lying tune?
MMT does not say thiongs are free
It says when there is underemployment spending can be incurred without risk of infaltion. That is not the same as things being free.
There seems to be a misapprehension among those on social media (where most now get their information) that because the population is growing that the same small pot of money cannot provide for them – especially if they come from abroad. They do not seem to realise a bigger population provides more in direct and indirect taxation.
Richard,
You are spot on.
For thé explanation i direct you to thé récent freedman blog.
Hé cites thé loss of Faith of labour party advisers in deliverism.
Apparently it takes too long to do anything so They think There is no point in trying.
Hence Streeting is concentrating on thé politics of messaging and posturing.
Présumably hé hopes to be reshuffled béfore too Much damage is done to his Career prospects.
I fear Time and évents are running Faster than They réalise.
Passive leadership is not What thé country Needs.
Sad but true Labour in name only and they’ll lose the elections they want to win . Very very upset about the lack of performance and courage in all areas