No all-party social care meeting for weeks as Lib Dems accuse government of 'kicking can down road'
The Government has been accused of “kicking the can down the road” with social care, after not a single all-party meeting on the under-pressure sector has taken place for almost two months.
Talks on February 26 - after it was confirmed Baroness Louise Casey would lead an independent commission on the subject - were postponed with ministers saying that not all parties could make the meeting.
Since then, the Liberal Democrats said they have offered to “clear our diaries” but claimed no new date has been proposed.
Sir Ed Davey has made social care one of his key priorities as the party’s leader.
Helen Morgan, the Lib Dems’ health and social care spokesperson, said: “If it’s taking almost two months and counting to schedule a single meeting, I have serious concerns about the focus at the top of government needed to successfully undertake and implement this review.
“Ministers’ handling of these cross-party talks smells of a government that has put rescuing social care in the ‘too difficult’ pile.
“Their failure to grasp the nettle means that a review that could have been completed within a year is instead taking three, with ministers risking even longer delays because of their failure to get these talks off the ground.
“For years under the Conservatives, [social care] was shamefully neglected, with patients bearing the brunt. Now, the Labour government is taking an approach of kicking the can down the road rather than facing up to the challenges of fixing this broken system.”
Labour pledged to set up a National Care Service in its manifesto, but there has been little detail on what this would look like.
The Government also indefinitely delayed its promise to bring in the fees cap on adult social care, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves blaming a £22bn black hole in public finances.
An independent commission, led by Baroness Casey, will begin in April, but the Government confirmed that a second phase, making long-term recommendations, might not report until 2028.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “This government is committed to building national, cross-party consensus to create a fair and affordable adult social care system for all.
“This is why the prime minister has asked Baroness Louise Casey to lead an independent commission into adult social care as part of our critical first steps towards building a national care service.”