Extract from the Labour Party policy summary December 2014
The growing social care crisis is one of the biggest challenges we face as a society. Since 2010, £2 .7 billion has been cut from budgets that pay for adult social care while the number of older people needing care has increased. The result is that the system is close to collapse with some elderly people receiving just 15 minute visits and care for by a workforce that is undervalued.
The tighter eligibility criteria which are being applied to deal with this mean that hundreds of thousands fewer people are getting help. And the rising burden of care charges is adding to the cost of living crisis: increases in charges now mean that since 2010, elderly and disabled
people are paying almost £740 a year more for vital home care services.
LABOUR’S PLAN
For too many vulnerable people the current health and care system feels like three fragmented services: physical health in the mainstream NHS, mental health on the fringes of the NHS, and social care in council run services. We will change that, bringing the services together around those needing care – with a single point of contact to organise your care and new homecare workers in the NHS to support people to stay in their home.
We will also end the acceptance of exploitation of the social care workforce, which harms the care people receive. We will stop zero hour contracts being used when care workers are in practice working regular hours, and fully enforce the minimum wage.