Social care; Boris Johnson damned by his own empty words – The Yorkshire Post says

BORIS Johnson finds himself damned by his own words when it comes to social care – and how Yorkshire councils are having to use emergency ‘reserves’ to prop up services as local government’s financial crisis escalates.
Boris Johnson promised to reform social care when he became Prime Minister a year ago.Boris Johnson promised to reform social care when he became Prime Minister a year ago.
Boris Johnson promised to reform social care when he became Prime Minister a year ago.

This is what the Prime Minister said on taking office exactly a year ago: “I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared...”

Now compare and contrast that pledge with the Government’s obfuscating response to The Yorkshire Post this week. Omitting to mention the PM’s so-called “plan”, a spokesman said cross-party talks will take place “at the earliest opportunity”.

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When? Glib phrases like “earliest opportunity” are Whitehall-speak for ‘dither and delay’ – a polite description for the complacency of successive governments who have all had to make emergency funding available to prop up the care sector.

Social care remains one of Boris Johnson's major policy failings.Social care remains one of Boris Johnson's major policy failings.
Social care remains one of Boris Johnson's major policy failings.

It can’t continue like this. Local authorities – and care providers – need longer-term funding guarantees to plan sufficient services for an ageing population.

Yet, while it can be argued that council ‘reserves’ are intended, in part, for emergencies like Covid-19, the subsidy of day-to-day services has never been their intended use.

And the Government’s hint at cross-party talks, a ruse to mask this major policy failure, is also questionable when Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Liz Kendall, the Shadow Care Minister, have already committed their respective parties in recent weeks to proceeding on this basis.

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How? With no evidence of this process even beginning, just how bad does the crisis have to get, and how many elderly people have to be denied crucial care support, for anyone in the Government and/or Parliament to take the initiative and show the requisite leadership?

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

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