Column 31.07.26 - Jack Abbott welcomes social care reform

We all know that social care in this country is broken. And, yet, the reform of social care has long been seen as politically toxic, something that is too difficult, too controversial, when it should be something that is utterly essential to get right.

We cannot afford to keep kicking the can down the road.

Avoiding the question has left vulnerable people unsure about what support they will receive. It has left care workers overworked and undervalued. It has left families facing extortionate bills just to access the very basic care.

We have a choice: confront the problem head on or pass it on to the next generation.

The pressures facing our social care system are not solely felt by the people using or working in it. Social care is strangling our NHS – and the impacts are devastating.

Last month, an average of 13,600 people a day were stuck in hospital beds despite being medically fit to leave, with many delays because of the availability of adult social care.

Around 3,000 instances of corridor care happen every day as hospitals struggle with capacity. Far too often that is the result of discharge delays.

Social care funding cuts between 2010 and 2018 led to an extra half a million A&E attendances for people aged 65 and over. It is a terrible legacy that removed dignity, security and support from people and put enormous pressure on our hospitals.

Indeed, social care reform is not just about supporting elderly or disabled people, essential though that is. It is also about protecting our hospitals and our wider NHS too.

That is why I welcome the new Prime Minister’s statement of intent. He is determined to work across party lines to rebuild the social care system and restore that dignity, security and support that people deserve.

He has asked Baroness Casey to bring forward work on building a National Care Service to next summer – a year earlier than previously planned. That work includes a new national conversation on the future of social care, which began this week, so that people in Ipswich and towns like ours across the country can contribute to building a social care system that works for them.

This announcement builds on Labour’s wider programme over the last two years to strengthen social care and deliver a National Care Service that works for everyone.

Our Government made an additional £4.6 billion available for adult social care by 2028/29, including more than £80 million for Suffolk this year, established the first Fair Pay Agreement for adult social care staff – after this year’s 6.7% wage increase - and introduced a universal career structure to give people a clearer path to progress.

We cannot have high-quality public services if we do not value the people providing them. That principle must be at the heart of our reformed system.

Our Government also increased total funding for hospices in England to £125 million, the largest increase in a generation. As part of that, local hospices St Elizabeth Hospice and the Treehouse received an extra £940,000 and £870,000 respectively.

I have seen the incredible work carried out by the dedicated staff at both hospices, and by care workers across our community.

They go above and beyond, but they deserve a system that properly supports them too.

We have needed to have a frank and honest conversation about social care for a long time. I look forward to having those conversations in good faith. There will be difficult questions to answer, but we need to get this right.

We owe it to our care workers who show up every day to care for others, and we owe it to everyone in need of care, because one day that will be all of us.