Carers Week: Time for Matt Hancock to show he cares – The Yorkshire Post says

Absent, once again, was the “Care” badge that the Health Secretary had previously launched, and sported, to signal his solidarity with all those who work in the social care sector.

And this continuing lack of recognition is concerning at a time when many in Government concede that insufficient attention was paid to the needs of care homes at the start of this crisis.

After all, Mr Hancock’s task would be even more invidious if it was not for the millions of people who have become unpaid carers for loved ones due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Data released to mark the start of Carers Week today indicates that 4.5 million more people are now caring for older, disabled or seriously ill family or friends as a result of the pandemic. This is on top of the 9.1 million people who were already doing so before the crisis erupted.

Yet, while the majority do it out of duty and devotion, they also undertake this role in spite of a system in which the needs of the elderly, and adults with long-standing health needs, are of secondary importance to the investment taking place in NHS hospitals.

A legacy of the failure of successive Health Secretaries to reform social care, this should be the week where Mr Hancock thanks carers for making his job slightly more bearable and promises them the support that they, too, do need. The last thing he should do is take them for granted.

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James Mitchinson

Editor