Liz Kendall asks an Urgent Question on Government’s plans for social care reform

"It’s 100 weeks since the Prime Minister stood on the steps of Downing Street and said he would ‘fix the crisis in social care’, with a plan he had already prepared, to give people ‘the dignity and security they deserve’.

Since then, almost 42,000 care home residents have died from Covid-19.

Two million people have applied for support, but had their request refused.

Tens of thousands have had to sell their home to pay for care. Millions of families have hit breaking point and staff have been appallingly let down.

And - even after all the horrors of this pandemic - nine out of 10 councils say they face care budget cuts this year.

Yet this week we learn ministers can’t even be bothered to have a meeting to finally come up with the goods.

That isn’t delivering dignity, its abdicating responsibility.

So will the minister tell us: when precisely will we see the Government’s plan? Because a vague commitment to sometime later this year isn’t worth the press release its written on after all the delays and broken promises.

Will the plan include a cap on care costs, so people don’t see their life’s savings wiped out? Which has been repeatedly promised, was legislated for seven-years ago but has still not been delivered.

Will there be proper proposals to improve support for people with disabilities - who make up a third of the users and half of the budget for social care but have been entirely absent from the debate?

Will we see a decent workforce plan, so frontline carers get the pay and conditions they deserve and we end endemic staff shortages?

And will unpaid family carers get the help they need, so their own health doesn’t suffer and they’re not forced to choose between holding down a job and caring for the people they love most?

Mr Speaker, in the century of ageing, we cannot build a better future for Britain without a decent system of social care: this is as much a part of our infrastructure as the roads and the railways.

Our country urgently needs a plan. When will the Government deliver?