The Social Care Foxtrot

In recent years, I haven’t watched Strictly as avidly as I used to, but I have seen enough to know that the steps of a foxtrot are slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. It struck me last week that this is akin to how Labour have been approaching their reforms to planning, local government and social care.

Slow, slow… 

As the Care and Carers spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, I have been pushing the government to bring forward their plans for social care reform throughout the autumn. Nothing seemed to be happening, and we were told to wait for the new year. 

…Quick, quick…

When it came to local government, Labour suddenly seemed to be in an awful hurry, rolling out a string of announcements just before Christmas.

On planning, changes were announced that are designed to deliver 1.5 million new homes in five years. The first thing to note about this headline figure is that it is the same target that the last Conservative government set itself (and failed to meet), except that they talked about 300,000 homes per year instead. As the Conservatives’ legacy shows, these diktats from Whitehall are hard to make a success of. The best way to deliver the homes we need is to bring local communities on board and part of that is ensuring that the GPs, schools, and public transport is built alongside the homes. This is the only way we can help families stuck in temporary accommodation, and give younger generations a real chance of having a secure home to call their own.

Hot on the heels of the planning announcements was a government white paper on devolution and local government reform. This short clip from Matt Chorley’s Radio 5 Show outlines the main changes that are being proposed. 

Here in Mid Sussex, we are one of those areas that has a ‘two tier’ system. We have West Sussex County Council as our upper authority, and then Mid Sussex District Council as our lower authority. (In fact if you want to complicate it further, we are a three tier system, because Mid Sussex also has a network of town and parish councils covering the whole area). 

Why does this matter? Well it seems probable that Sussex will be going through a process of powers being devolved to it from central government to create a ‘Mayoral Strategic Authority’. A part of this is that the current two tier system of councils will be merged. At the end of last week, papers were published for a meeting of the Cabinet of West Sussex Council Council on these proposals. If the plans are agreed by each of the Cabinets of West Sussex County Council, East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove City Council this Thursday, a letter will be sent to the government asking for Sussex to join what is being called the ‘Devolution Priority Programme.’ 

The timescales for this are short, and I am concerned that the haste and uncertainty of these changes will make it harder for cash strapped local councils to deliver the essential services that residents rely on. You can be assured that during a potentially uncertain period, I and local Lib Dem councillors in Mid Sussex will be focussed upon listening to you and making sure that we are doing our best to represent you at each turn.  

…Slow

And so to January and a raft of government announcements about their plans to improve health and care services. Most significant of which were Wes Streeting’s announcement that he is setting up an independent commission on building a National Care Service. 

Reform of social care is something that everyone agrees must happen, and it should have happened a long time ago. So it is right that the Secretary of State has made this announcement, but I am so concerned by the timescales. If the commission does not report until late this Parliament in 2028, then politicians will be looking down the barrel of the next general election, and as Streeting himself said, ‘General election campaigns are where plans for social care go to die’. This commission could have been announced on the steps of Downing Street six months ago immediately after the general election. These timescales are too long, and I don’t want to see this government fail on social care reform just as all of its predecessors have done before it. 

The Social Care Foxtrot

It’s interesting to me that the government is in an awful rush to turn local government on its head, whilst at the same time dragging their feet over social care, especially when you consider that the costs of social care are one of the key reasons why many local authorities across the country are under so much financial pressure. 

It’s depressing - but valid - to conclude that it comes down to what is politically easy, and what is politically hard. Frankly, the vast majority of the population are not overly interested in local government and how it is organised. As long as the bins are collected and the pot holes filled, it isn’t noticed or valued as it should be. Re-organising councils and realising efficiency savings sounds like a no brainer. In reality the money that might be saved by merging councils will pale into insignificance compared to the spiralling costs of social care that are and will continue to cripple councils regardless of how they are structured. 

If the government is serious about having an NHS that works, it must reform social care.

If the government is serious about local government being financially sound, it must reform social care.

And if we want to live in a society that properly looks after the elderly and the disabled, we must reform social care and critically agree how we are going to pay for it. 

This is a problem that isn’t going to go away. It is only going to get larger and larger. I will of course engage constructively in any cross party work, but I will continue to press for more urgency. The cost of inaction is too large not to. 

Getting in touch

My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch and I will do my best to help. 

I am pleased that the backlog of letters and emails that built up immediately after the general election is getting smaller thanks to my lovely and dedicated staff. Response times are still not as quick as I want them to be, but we are making progress. 

Best wishes,

Alison

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