Tory MPs angry over absence of social care reform plan in Budget

Former Tory cabinet ministers have hit out at the absence of any plan for social care reform in the Budget, amid concerns that the rising costs of the current tottering system will have to be funded by council tax hikes.

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, warned the social care sector had been left “bruised”, “demoralised” and with “little hope” following the most devastating year in its history.

After the Budget omitted mention of any measures to reform the sector, the Tory chairman of the Commons health select committee tweeted on Wednesday night: “Understand money is difficult to commit at this stage, but they desperately need to know a plan is coming.”

Damian Green, the former first secretary of state and now co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on adult social care, said: “I share the impatience for a solution to this. It’s more important as we recover from the pandemic.”

Calling on ministers to take action, he told The Telegraph: “The attention that’s been drawn to the fact it wasn’t in the Budget reinforces my view that this has to be the year the Government comes forward with proposals.”

Andrew Lewer, another Tory MP on the all-party group, warned the costs of the current system “are only going to rise” and that local authorities are unable to devise “anything other than short-term sticking plaster solutions to their care difficulties”.

He said: “Without a clear direction of travel for the future of adult care, it inevitably leads to concerns that that lack of certainty will be reflected in council tax increases.”

Questions arose on Thursday about the status of a plan that Boris Johnson claimed he had ready to implement when he became Prime Minister in July 2019, months before the coronavirus outbreak took hold.

Rishi Sunak said that the current focus was the pandemic, but insisted that ministers were “committed” to finding a “cross-party” solution, reiterating a pledge in the Tory party’s 2019 manifesto.

However, Labour denied there had been any outreach or dialogue on the issue. Liz Kendall, Labour's shadow minister for social care, said the Government had not “discussed or even raised” with the Opposition its plans to build a cross-party consensus.

Care groups and charities also weighed in to criticise the Chancellor over the omission of any measures in the Budget to address growing social care pressures.

Mr Sunak told BBC Radio 4: “I know the Health Secretary has started that work on trying to see what the solutions might be and at the appropriate time, if we can find consensus on a solution, we will bring that forward and have that conversation, but that is something that of course we remain committed to.”

Successive governments have failed to grasp the nettle, leaving families facing ruinously expensive care costs while the system as a whole struggles for funding.

It is now 20 months on from Mr Johnson’s first speech as prime minister in which he said he was “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”.

Asked why there had been no further information advanced about such a plan, Mr Sunak said: “I think it is going to take some time and thought to get it right because we want to make sure it is a lasting settlement.”

The Prime Minister's press secretary, Allegra Stratton, told reporters that the Government’s focus on “saving lives in care homes and other places” during the pandemic had meant “there just hasn’t been the chance to look in detail at what comes next”.

She said Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, had written to all MPs on the issue in March 2020 and would pick that work up again as the coronavirus crisis eases.

Sir Andrew Dilnot, who led a review into the future of funding social care which recommended a cap on costs in 2011, said the lack of action on it was “a stain on our nation”.

He said the broad outline of any plan would involve topping up the funding for council-delivered means-tested social care while creating “some form of social insurance” for the population to “pool the risk” should they need care later in life.

He predicted it would need between £7-10 billion extra per year to be put into social care.

Sir Andrew told the BBC: “We know how to do this, we just need to get on and do it.”

Anita Charlesworth, research director at the Health Foundation, an independent charity, told The Telegraph: “As we come out of the crisis phase of Covid it’s clear that those who rely on social care and those who work in social care have paid a very heavy price over the last year.

“They deserve a social care system that is fit for purpose, meets the needs of the most vulnerable in society and provides decent employment for those who care. At the moment social care falls woefully short of those goals.”

She added: “Each time the Government kicks the can down the road and delays, it is the most vulnerable in society who pay the price.”