Cameron challenged on elderly care

Dr John Sentamu used an open letter, addressed to both the Prime Minister and the taxpayers of England, to challenge the Government to embrace the principles set out by the Dilnot Commission because existing arrangements are now “unfit for purpose”.

“While there is no evidence that other cultures care for older people more than we do, African and many non-Western societies more visibly care about older people,” he added.

His intervention threatens to further strain relations between the Government and the Church of England over whether senior clergy are interfering unduly in social policy.

Dr Sentamu is no stranger to controversy. He urged the Government, in this newspaper on November 6, to introduce a radical overhaul of the tax system and called for greed to be made as socially unacceptable as racism and homophobia.

That prompted 18 CoE bishops to voice their concerns about the Government’s proposed overhaul of the welfare system, with Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith among those politicians who called for these “political forays” to end.

Yet the Archbishop of Canterbury used a speech last week to predict future riots unless youth unemployment is tackled – and now Dr Sentamu is pressing for lasting reforms on the care of the elderly.

He said that economist Andrew Dilnot’s commission, recommending that individual contributions be capped at £35,000, “had shown us the way forward” – even though this could ultimately cost taxpayers £2bn.

However Dr Sentamu said: “Such a system will provide sufficient certainty to enable people to plan ahead, and allow the financial services industry to develop insurance and other products to help them with their planning. It will also help the poorest in our society the most.”

The Archbishop says society should also place a greater value on the wisdom of older people in order to help build a future for younger generations.

He said: “A failing of today’s society is to set the old over and against the young, in a state of mutual incomprehension. In fact, the old need the young and the young, the old. An integration of the generations is critical to a mutually supportive society.”

Calling for a new social covenant, the Archbishop made a direct plea to Mr Cameron. “We stand at a moment of serious social as well as economic crisis. At such a time, leadership of a particularly high order is called for,” he wrote.

“You, Prime Minister, and Her Majesty’s Government have shown your wish to provide such leadership. Reforming the system of funding the care of older people is one such issue.

“Dilnot has shown us the way forward. It is a call to action which our country cannot, must not, ignore.”

Commenting on the Archbishop’s letter, Lib Dem Care Services Minister Paul Burstow did not respond directly to Dr Sentamu’s intervention – and assertions.

He said: “We agree that social care needs reform and that’s why the Government acted quickly to establish the Commission on Funding Care and Support, chaired by Andrew Dilnot.”

Mr Burstow said he had been consulting widely ahead of a Social Care White Paper that will be published in the spring. He added that legislation would “follow at the earliest opportunity”.

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Comment: Page 10; Why we need a new social covenant: Page 11.