BBCSir Keir Starmer’s first five months have produced little sign of a plan for Labour’s promised National Care Service – and now I’m told there is a “genuine impasse” at the top of government over what to do about social care.Health Secretary Wes Streeting publicly acknowledges “we can’t solve the NHS crisis” without improving what a government source describes as an “appalling” situation, in a system that’s meant to look after vulnerable and elderly adults in England.But multiple sources tell me the Treasury is deeply nervous about the cost and that the prime minister is yet to make a decision on how to proceed.Talks have so far failed to decide even whether to hold another review of the system. “Dither, dither, dither,” said one insider involved in the discussions.But another source said: “Everyone wants to fix it but we don’t want to embark on something that then doesn’t happen.”I understand the prime minister, health secretary and the Chancellor Rachel Reeves are due to meet a week on Monday to try to make some progress.What options do they have?There is little controversy about the scale of the problem in social care, the system that helps older and disabled people with day-to-day tasks like washing, dressing, getting out of bed, eating and medication.There are as many as 500,000 people waiting for care. Council budgets are stretched, some teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, in part because of care costs. As the population ages, thousands upon thousands of people are stuck without the care they need, and thousands more stuck in hospital because there isn’t the support they need at home.Labour has given little detail on what its National Care Service would look like, but long-term reform would likely aim to address the shortage of care, the length of waiting lists, and the costs for people who don’t qualify for free care, which can be crippling for families.Ministers are considering whether to create a Royal Commission to look at the issue or a government-backed independent review, tipped to be led by the straight-talking Whitehall troubleshooter Dame Louise Casey.The advantage of a Royal Commission? It’s not party political, so theoretically can bind every politician to back its solutions and make the warring parties work together.The downside? It could take two or three years, pushing possible fixes to the urgent problems until afte …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnBBCSir Keir Starmer’s first five months have produced little sign of a plan for Labour’s promised National Care Service – and now I’m told there is a “genuine impasse” at the top of government over what to do about social care.Health Secretary Wes Streeting publicly acknowledges “we can’t solve the NHS crisis” without improving what a government source describes as an “appalling” situation, in a system that’s meant to look after vulnerable and elderly adults in England.But multiple sources tell me the Treasury is deeply nervous about the cost and that the prime minister is yet to make a decision on how to proceed.Talks have so far failed to decide even whether to hold another review of the system. “Dither, dither, dither,” said one insider involved in the discussions.But another source said: “Everyone wants to fix it but we don’t want to embark on something that then doesn’t happen.”I understand the prime minister, health secretary and the Chancellor Rachel Reeves are due to meet a week on Monday to try to make some progress.What options do they have?There is little controversy about the scale of the problem in social care, the system that helps older and disabled people with day-to-day tasks like washing, dressing, getting out of bed, eating and medication.There are as many as 500,000 people waiting for care. Council budgets are stretched, some teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, in part because of care costs. As the population ages, thousands upon thousands of people are stuck without the care they need, and thousands more stuck in hospital because there isn’t the support they need at home.Labour has given little detail on what its National Care Service would look like, but long-term reform would likely aim to address the shortage of care, the length of waiting lists, and the costs for people who don’t qualify for free care, which can be crippling for families.Ministers are considering whether to create a Royal Commission to look at the issue or a government-backed independent review, tipped to be led by the straight-talking Whitehall troubleshooter Dame Louise Casey.The advantage of a Royal Commission? It’s not party political, so theoretically can bind every politician to back its solutions and make the warring parties work together.The downside? It could take two or three years, pushing possible fixes to the urgent problems until afte …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
