Will social care reform be the real victim of this election?
By Paul Roberts
www.caringforyourbusiness.co.uk
The General Election is just over a week old and already May 6 seems like an eternity away. Hands up all those who are sick and tired of the election campaign and the daily dose of:
· Smug politicians failing to answer direct questions
· Smiling (former) MPs making promises they can’t (and won’t) keep
· The playground antics of election candidates
· Political leaders shaking hands, kissing babies and old folks, painting walls and making ‘friendly’ calls to their constituents
It all seems such a farce, so false – so far removed from what should be the real objective: to get Britain back on track after the worst recession for more than 60 years.
The polls are inconsistent. And no-one should be surprised. For few of us see any real difference between the big three political parties.
As with all elections, the one thing you are very unlikely to hear in the run up to polling day is…the truth.
There have been promises galore about the economy, taxes, making Britain ‘great again’ and looking after the interests of ‘real people’.
National Insurance has dominated the headlines with Labour accusing the Conservatives of deceiving business leaders over their plans to protect jobs.
Vitriol and hollow sound bites are triumphing over substance and integrity – and the ordinary person is again the victim of politicians’ schoolboy tactics.
Wish list
Regardless of which party we vote for, many of us have a ‘wish list’ for the next five years. We don’t expect all our hopes to be fulfilled – but we do expect our politicians to listen and respond to them.
My ‘wish list’ focuses on the future of social care and the need for the new Government to bite the bullet on reform.
Labour have made a concerted effort to bring about radical change, proposing the biggest welfare shake-up since the creation of the NHS in 1948.
They have published two key policy documents – Shaping the Future of Care Together and Building a National Care Service – in the past year.
In the past few weeks they have called for a compulsory payment system to be introduced to make a National Care Service reality.
Sadly, they have failed to decide how the system should operate – instead leaving this thorny issue to a care commission yet to be established.
Whatever we think about this ‘cop-out’, at least Labour have walked the uncomfortable path towards reforming social care.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have been quick to verbally demolish the proposals, but have offered very few positives in return.
The only conclusion I can draw is that change will be ‘shelved’ or relegated to the bottom of the ‘must do’ pile if the Tories triumph in the election or share power with the Lib-Dems.
I have read hundreds of pages of news and Parliamentary reports about the Personal Care at Home Bill and Labour’s plans for a ‘death tax’.
The Conservatives – and some Labour stalwarts – have been great at ‘points scoring’ and ridiculing the plans for reform.
But they have done nothing to encourage me to believe that they have the will – or the intention – to come up with better proposals.
This is not a pro-Labour statement. It’s a plea to all the political parties to pay more than lip service to social care.
The election will not be won or lost on this issue. But the need for reform is gathering momentum and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will ignore it at their peril.
The silent army of unpaid carers who provide care at home for hundreds of thousands of people are the only barrier to social care collapsing in Britain.
Unless more is done to help them – and to provide a way to pay for future care needs – a crisis of monumental proportions will raise its ugly head.
May 1st, 2010 at 1:43 pm
There are a number of honesty indicators in the way people speak. Looking at the final debate Gordon Brown comes across as having the most honest language profile. Clegg comes in a distant second with Cameron close behind Clegg.
May 6th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
great post as usual!
May 8th, 2010 at 6:40 am
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!