• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

North East Connected

Hopping Across The North East From Hub To Hub

Don’t forget social care as new government takes shape

ByDave Stopher

Jun 15, 2017

The crisis in social care – a key issue in the General Election – must not be abandoned or forgotten when the new Government is formed, a provider group warned today.

The Independent Care Group says the country needs urgent clarity on how the government is going to tackle social care and help the 1.2m people currently living without the care they need.

Chair Mike Padgham said: “Nothing has changed overnight, there are still 1.2m people going without care and the crisis in the sector remains. For the sake of those 1.2m and the many hundreds of thousands more who will need care in the coming months and years we have to have a clear strategy on social care and we have to have it now.

“Yes, there will be a million things for the new government to deal with but social care played a pivotal role in this election campaign and cannot and must not be forgotten now.”

He said the country needed to know if the Conservative manifesto proposal – including a £100,000 financial threshold and an undisclosed cap on care costs – was going to become a policy for the government.

“If the Conservatives are to form the next government then we need to know if their manifesto pledges on social care are to go ahead and, crucially, what that cap on care costs is going to be so that people are clear on the future,” he added.

“And we hope they will now listen to the issues on care as there are many things that weren’t in the manifesto that need to be tackled. We are only too happy to help any party that might form the next government to get to grips with the crisis, for the good of older and vulnerable adults in this country.”