Social care expert says politicking with social care helps no-one

Responding to the announcements in the Queen’s Speech on long term care James Lloyd, Senior Researcher at the SMF and expert in long term care funding issues (who gave evidence to the Health Select Committee on this issue a fortnight ago) said:

“In order to achieve a fair and properly financed system of long term care funding, everyone - young and old - is going to have to contribute financially. Reform will therefore never be a vote winner, and will only come about when the parties act in concert. For the public to buy into any reform, they have to know that the rules of the game won’t alter every time there is a change of government. Everyone in the social care field realises this, except the politicians.

“The July Green Paper, was a bold and brave document that set out the difficult choices that we must make as a society, and should have been used as an opportunity for debate leading to a broad political consensus. However since July the issue has returned to being a political football with both the main political parties using it to score political points.”