Section:GDN 1N PaGe:10 Edition Date:190801 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 31/7/2019 19:17 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Thursday 1 August 2019
10Social care PM’s boldest
domestic pledge – and
certainly the most costly
Denis Campbell
Health policy editorB
oris Johnson could
not have been clearer,
in his fi rst speech
as prime minister,
about his intention to
fi nally come up with
a solution to one of the great policy
failures of the past 20 years.
“My job is to protect you or your
parents or grandparents from the
fear of having to sell your home
to pay for the costs of care,” he
explained. “And so I am announcing
now ... that we will fi x the crisis in
social care once and for all and with
a clear plan we have prepared to give
every older person the dignity and
security they deserve.”This was perhaps the boldest
among Johnson’s pledges on key
domestic issues: fi xing social care
has proved both intractable and
politically perilous for both Labour
and Conservative governments in
recent years. But, if he is to be taken
at his word, the new prime minister
is not deterred.
Ending the persistent and
worsening scandal of the huge
unmet need among older and
disabled people for help with tasks
such as washing, getting up, dressing
and eating is also one of the most
expensive to deliver of the promises
he has been making.
Experts warn that just to get back
to the levels of access to help that
existed in 2009 -10 would cost at
least £8bn a year in England alone.
Local councils’ tightening of theireligibility criteria since 2010, a
response to deep Whitehall cuts to
their budgets, means that around
1.4 million people who need help
either get too little or none at all.
But if Johnson decides to
introduce free personal care for
everyone – an idea backed by
unlikely political bedfellows,
from Jacob Rees-Mogg and Policy
Exchange on the right to Andy
Burnham and the Institute for Public
Policy Research (IPPR) on the left –
the cost would be as much as £15bn
a year by 2020 -21, as there is general
agreement that free personal care
would cost £7bn. However, making
and maintaining both of these
changes could cost as much as £29bn
more a year by 2030.
It is as bold politically as it is
fi nancially of the prime minister
to make social care a key priority.
As Nick Davies at the Institute
for Government points out:
“The painful experience of his
predecessor clearly shows the
political damage that can be infl icted
by poorly thought through social
care proposals. Entering the 2017
general election campaign with a
huge polling lead, the poor public
reception to Theresa May’s social
care proposal was a key reason
for the loss of the Conservative ’s
majority in parliament.”
That the public recoiled at
proposals that would have- Boris Johnson has made
an array of audacious
policy pledges in his
leadership campaign and
since arriving in No 10.
In the fourth part of a
week-long series, the
Guardian looks beyond
the soundbites
Johnson’s promises
Source: The King's Fund, Social care 3602120.20While adult social care funding has
increased in recent years, it is still
£700m below 2010-11 levels
Total expenditure, £bn2221.21Older populations are growing
faster than those of working-age
Index, 2001 = 1. Projections start in 2018- Age 18 to 64 • 65+ • 85+
32010-11 2012-13 2014-15 2017-2001 2011 2021 2031 2041▲ Meeting the care needs of older
and disabled people will be extremely
expensive and complicated
ILLUSTRATION: BEN LOGDENNational
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