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Nadia Whittome: We need a National Care Service like the NHS [1]
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Date: 2023-07
This article is part of openDemocracy’s new series on the care crisis that explores the roots of the problem and inspiring alternatives.
Nadia Whittome MP will be discussing solutions to the care crisis at a parliamentary event co-sponsored by openDemocracy on 11 July from 6-8pm. You can register for free here.
On 5 July, the NHS turns 75. Universal, free at the point of use, determined by need and not the ability to pay; it was a groundbreaking creation that is a beloved institution and continues to be the UK’s proudest achievement.
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But today the health service is being let down by a failing social care system. In England, 2.6 million people over 50 have unmet care needs. Thousands languish in hospital beds, well enough to leave but unable to be discharged because of a lack of social care provision. And one in five of us is having to plug the gaps in a broken system by providing care for a loved one.
As a former care worker myself, I’ve seen first-hand just how sorry a state our care system is in. And if we think the care crisis is bad now, we haven’t seen anything yet: in 20 years’ time, a quarter of British people will be over the age of 65.
While everyone agrees that change is urgently needed, proposals from recent Conservative governments have been wholly inadequate: at best insufficient, at worst offensive. In 2017, Theresa May was pressured into an embarrassing U-turn over her so-called ‘dementia tax’ policy, which would have seen disabled people’s homes sold off after they died to pay for their social care.
Boris Johnson kept promising a plan to fix social care, only to announce inadequate piecemeal reforms. Now Rishi Sunak has dropped even these commitments, cutting money for workforce-related initiatives despite staff shortages being a key factor in the current crisis.
Dismayed by this prolonged lack of action, many people have argued that we need a more comprehensive solution: a National Care Service. There are many definitions of what a National Care Service is, or could be. But I believe that we should look to the creation of our NHS for inspiration and be just as bold in our plans.
Firstly, there is an obvious argument for making social care free at the point of use. Just as the NHS operates on the principle that people shouldn’t be forced to pay for falling ill, it’s equally unfair to penalise a person (or their family) for having care needs relating to a disability, chronic illness or old age.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/nhs-national-care-service-nhs-75-anniversary-social-care/
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