Silver Voices, a non-profit which has over 10,000 members, warned a review of Britain’s care service risked becoming a “farce” unless ministers outlined how it would work
Wes Streeting “must clarify” how Labour’s plans for a National CARE service will work, campaigners have said.
Baroness Louise Casey has been tasked with leading an independent probe into social care, to pave the way for the “National Care Service” that Labour promised in its manifesto. However, Silver Voices, a non-profit which has over 10,000 members and campaigns on behalf of the over-60s, warned a failure to outline what it intended to deliver before Baroness Casey started the review risked it becoming a “farce”.
In a letter to its members and most MPs, Director Dennis Reed said: “Does Labour envisage the national care service as a stand-alone organisation on par with the NHS, or if not, what form will it take? What broad objectives will the national care service be set up to achieve?
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“Does Labour still believe that social care should be provided on the same basis as the NHS, i.e. free at the point of use? Until these questions are answered Baroness Casey has an impossible task, being required to make recommendations on implementing an undefined organisation with undefined service objectives.”
Speaking to The Mirror, Mr Reed added: “You can’t make recommendations on setting up a national care service unless you have a broad idea of what it is. At the moment we just have the three words to work on, and Casey’s task will be like juggling with blancmange.”
The review will hone in on the most critical issues dogging the sector and publish initial recommendations by the middle of next year. A second phase, reporting by 2028, will make longer-term recommendations on areas like funding, an issue which has repeatedly been kicked into the long grass.
Baroness Casey previously led reviews into the failure of children’s services in the Rotherham grooming gangs scandal and the Metropolitan Police following the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens.
A department of health spokesperson said: “We are determined to fix the crisis in social care we inherited. The Casey Commission has a clear mandate – to undertake the most comprehensive review of adult social care in a generation – and we’ve deliberately given Baroness Casey the space to examine all options and models to help build cross-party consensus for a National Care Service.
“We have been clear that addressing the complex challenges facing the sector will take time, but we are taking action now to improve adult social care through a £3.7 billion funding boost, money for an extra 15,000 home adaptations for disabled people, the biggest uplift to the Carer’s Allowance threshold since the 1970s, and the first ever Fair Pay Agreement to boost recruitment and retention in the workforce.”
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