Labour must find the cash so every person is treated with dignity, so social care becomes a job people actually want, Unison General Secretary Christina McAnea writes
You might recall the scene. Six years ago, with his mop of hair glinting in the sun, Boris Johnson stood in Downing Street and fibbed to the nation.
“We’ll fix the crisis in social care once and for all,” he promised. But the truth? Like his Tory predecessors, Boris had no plan and no clue. His party got nowhere near fixing our broken care system. In fact, things got worse. Millions more vulnerable people – the elderly and children – need support today.
Chances are, one day almost everyone you know will need some form of care. Washing, feeding, providing a friendly ear and doing the messy stuff most of us would rather not think about. But the system has spiralled into crisis while Britain’s population ages.
READ MORE: Anger as NHS may have wrongly diagnosed thousands of people with Type 2 diabetesREAD MORE: Wes Streeting urged to clarify plans to fix Britain’s social care crisis
NHS and council care is underfunded. There are 110,000 vacancies due to low pay, tough work and long hours. Many care workers don’t get proper pay as they travel to people’s homes. Often they aren’t given sick pay and are on the minimum wage despite performing a skilled, exhausting job.
These staff issue medication and tube-feed those struggling to eat. Yet they routinely face abuse, threats and violence. It’s no wonder so many leave the sector when retail or hospitality jobs pay more for less stress.
Dedicated overseas workers have helped prevent the system from collapsing. But too many are exploited by bad bosses who’ve pressured them to work without proper pay. Some employers even demand workers cover fake costs.
Now ministers, under pressure over immigration, are stopping new migrant care staff from entering the UK. Care work may not be glamorous. But staff are modern-day heroes, propping up a collapsing system. My union represents thousands of these staff. Their work is incredible – but badly rewarded.
There are no easy answers. But people need Labour to step up. Ministers have kicked their social care review into the long grass until 2028. But they can’t hide from what’s needed. Health secretary Wes Streeting is considering a National Care Service – an idea my union has backed for years. It could guarantee fairer minimum standards for all.
But better care needs investment. Labour must find the cash so every person is treated with dignity. That starts with decent pay, so care becomes a job people actually want. With Labour struggling in the polls, people need to know what the government stands for.
Bold action now would help millions who need help and show Keir Starmer’s government understands what’s required. After years of Tory fibs and failure, fixing social care isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s how Labour proves it’s ready to govern for working people.
‘Workers were doing nothing wrong’
It takes something to bring people together in politics right now. But managers at the National Coal Mining Museum in Wakefield have managed it. Local politicians of all persuasions think they’re the pits.
Relations have plummeted ever since bosses backtracked on a pay rise promised to staff in June. The museum will have splashed out around £50,000 on needless security staff and alternative attractions while workers are on the picket line. It would have cost a fraction of that to settle things.
This week miserable managers even called police to speak to staff on a perfectly legal picket line outside the museum. Officers rightly pointed out workers – including veterans of the 1980s miners’ strike – were doing nothing wrong. Enough’s enough. Those in charge must stop wasting time and money. Just get this sorted.
‘Record-breaking strikes’
Rivalling the mining museum for bad bosses of the year are Gloucestershire Royal and Cheltenham General hospitals. Workers there have taken a record-breaking 165 days of strikes.
Staff should be moved up a grade – an extra £1 an hour – so they’re paid fairly for extra tasks they’ve taken on. There’s no excuse for the delay. Since 2021, over 60 NHS trusts have done deals putting staff on the correct grade.
‘Bad management’
Not wanting to be outdone in the bad management stakes are Reform UK councillors in Lincolnshire.
Elected on promises of tackling waste and saving money, the new council chiefs spent over £1,000 of public money repainting lines in the car park. Why? They wanted to turn four spaces into three to accommodate their massive motors.
READ MORE: Join our Mirror politics WhatsApp group to get the latest updates from Westminster