Labour calls on Conservative MPs to support motion to take action on social care crisis

Labour is calling on the Government to provide the urgent funding needed to close the social care funding gap for this year and the rest of Parliament, and to remove the threat of further cuts to local authority budgets, and fines on local authorities, for not meeting Delayed Transfers of Care targets.

Since the Tories came to power in 2010, there are over 400,000 fewer people receiving publicly-funded care, and over 1.2 million people are now living with unmet care needs, many of them isolated and lonely.

Government cuts to local authority budgets have resulted in severe cuts to adult social care, which are set to reach £6.3 billion by March 2018. Despite this pressure on social care budgets - with two-thirds of councils reporting care providers closures in their area since April - the Secretaries of State for Health and Communities and Local Government wrote to a number of councils threatening to penalise them further with fines and the withdrawal of future Better Care funding for not meeting what many see as increasingly unrealistic targets for Delayed Transfers of Care.

Labour’s motion also calls on the Government to confirm that it does not plan to proceed with a ‘dementia tax’. This follows the comments by Social Care Minister, Jackie Doyle-Price, at Conservative Party Conference, that appeared to leave the door open to the policy, saying: “The reality is that the taxpayer shouldn’t necessarily be propping up people to keep their property and hand it on to their children when they’re generating massive care needs.”

Barbara Keeley MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Social Care, calling on Conservative MPs to support the motion, said: 

“The social care crisis is a direct result of the cuts that this Government has chosen to make. After the debacle of the ‘Dementia Tax’, there has been continuing concern that current and future issues about funding social care are not being addressed.

“It is unbelievable that the Government’s response to the social care crisis is to threaten to make the situation worse by cutting funding for social care even more.

“I urge MPs from all parties to vote with us so that we can set the foundations for a safer, more sustainable and higher quality care system for the future and reassure those people who became worried by the Tories’ ‘Dementia Tax’ mess.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

 ·         The opposition day debate will take place on Wednesday 25 October 2017

 ·         Labour’s motion, tabled on Tuesday, states;

 “That this House notes the Conservative Party’s manifesto commitment to a funding proposal for social care which would have no cap on care costs and would include the value of homes in the means test for care at home; further notes that this proposal would leave people with a maximum of only £100,000 of assets; calls on the Government to confirm its intention not to proceed with this commitment; and further calls on the Government to remove the threat to withdraw social care funding for, and stop fines on, local authorities for Delayed Transfers of Care and to commit to the extra funding needed to close the social care funding gap for 2017 and the remaining years of the 2017 Parliament.”

 ·       Around 1.2 million people are now living with unmet care needs, such as washing and dressing.

Age UK, 17 November 2016 http://www.ageuk.org.uk/latest-news/12m-older-people-dont-get-the-social-care-they-need/

 ·         Under the Tories, there has been a 26 per cent reduction in the number of older people accessing publicly funded social care. “After six consecutive years of funding cuts, spending by local authorities on social care for older people fell by 9 per cent in real terms between 2009/10 and 2014/15. This has led to a reduction of at least 26 per cent – more than 400,000 people – in the number of older people accessing publicly funded social care, with a further reduction in 2015/16.” 

The Autumn Statement Joint statement on health and social care, King’s Fund, Nuffield Trust and Health Foundation, November 2016 https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/the-autumn-statement-joint-statement-on-health-and-social-care

 ·         Under the Tories, social care is in crisis as budgets have been cut after billions of pounds were slashed from council budgets. Cuts to adult social care are expected to reach £6.3 billion by the end of 2017/18, resulting in falling care quality and care packages being cut or rationed.

Association of Directors of Adult Social Services ADASS Budget Survey, 2017: https://www.adass.org.uk/adass-budget-survey-2017-difficult-decisions-and-more-cuts-need-to-be-made

 ·         Jackie Doyle-Price, the Minister responsible for policy areas including ‘care for the most vulnerable’ and ‘adult social care’, was speaking at a fringe meeting held by the Social Market Foundation on Tuesday 3 October. 

• The Minister said: “The reality is that the taxpayer shouldn’t necessarily be propping up people to keep their property and hand it on to their children when they’re generating massive care needs.”
• Later in the same meeting, she added: “We are very much looking at, when the review comes up, we will be looking at the whole issue of caps and floors and the degree to which people can protect their [inaudible] and what they pay.”

Tory minister Jackie Doyle-Price risks reopening 'dementia tax' row, Sky News, Thursday 12 October 2017

http://news.sky.com/story/tory-minister-jackie-doyle-price-risks-reopening-dementia-tax-row-11076868