Why Covid-19 crisis exposes social care and Budget failings

A recent cash boost has fialed to cancel out the austerity cuts that Yorkshire councils were compelled to make to balance the books.

GOOD to see The Yorkshire Post (March 14) examine the Budget package for local government.

It’s a shame that several major national papers ignored the implications for councils.

As you rightly point out, the Budget doesn’t restore the money that councils have lost in the last 10 years.

A failure to reform social care is compounding the coronavirus crisis.

Local services have been the whipping boy and we’ve seen the results in lost bus routes, the pothole parade on our roads and closed libraries.

Councils were also then hit by the double whammy of finding more money to pay for social care when their central funding was cut.

No sign of Government proposals to deal with that crisis though.

Though Labour’s ideas for social care funding weren’t perfect, at least they tried.

So far nothing but platitudes and promises from the Conservatives.

The Covid-19 crisis is now putting serious strain on hospitals.

Yet many patients cannot be moved out because of the social care crisis.

After nearly 10 years in office, isn’t it time the Conservatives realised that their collective failure to resolve one problem causes another elsewhere?