Matt Hancock’s neglect of duty over social care – The Yorkshire Post says

Yet this public appreciation does not automatically apply to Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock who remains front and centre of the Government’s response.

And while most members of the public are still sympathetic towards the Minister, he was slow to recognise genuine concerns about the availability of PPE equipment to health workers and the need to speed up testing.

Even Mr Hancock would probably accept this as he comes under daily pressure from political colleagues, and the media, to address these logistical challenges.

It is the same with the unfolding crisis in social care – a view re-enforced by new research purporting to conclude that around half the deaths from coronavirus are happening in care homes according to data collated from five European countries.

Mr Hancock’s ebullient disposition masks the fact that he is also responsible for this sector and that his response – critics might say indifference – stems from his failure to progress reforms to care that both he, and his predecessor Jeremy Hunt, long promised.

Either way, this neglect of duty – the elderly and vulnerablehave never felt more isolated and helpless in care homes across the country – is such that Mr Hancock should focus on the work of hospitals while a Cabinet-level minister is given specific responsbility for making sure the social care sector has the resources, and safeguards, that it so urgently needs.

At the moment it is being left to chance – and that’s simply not good enough.

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