Social care reform 'urgently and desperately needed

Lord Victor Adebowale, chair of the NHS Confederation and a co-signatory to a Care England letter to the Prime Minister calling for a '1948 moment' for adult social care, said:

“The Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly promised to fix the crisis in social care, yet two years into his premiership and despite decades of delay, the Government still has yet to make any real progress on this issue.

“Social care reform is now urgently and desperately needed. We urge the Government to set out a clear timetable, which details how reform of the sector can be delivered, and this needs to be supported by a long-term financial settlement.

“The NHS and social care are sister services and have been supporting one another and working closely for many, many decades. If one service is suffering, the other does too, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic over the last year have yet again served to highlight how brittle and under-resourced England’s social care system has become. The Government must now deliver legislative proposals to fix social care, once and for all. A well-funded and good quality social care sector is vital to a healthy nation and a strong and well-performing NHS.”