Queen’s Speech

Baroness Pitkeathley Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Pitkeathley (Lab)]

My Lords, I had a bit of a waiting-for-a-bus moment when I listened to the Queen’s Speech, because I felt I had waited 30 years for a mention in the gracious Speech, and then two came along at once. I refer to the two issues on which I contribute most in your Lordships’ House: social care and carers.

I hope that a mention in the Queen’s Speech, even if only a fleeting one, about ensuring that everybody has the dignity and security they deserve and that no one has to sell their home to fund care, means that the crisis in social care may finally be given the attention it needs so urgently. We have had five independent commissions, four White Papers, two Green Papers and endless other reports, yet no progress has been made, even though, as my noble friend Lord Hunt referred to, we have proposals agreed on the statute book in the form of the Dilnot commission. I hope that the noble Lord, Lord Warner, will say more about that.

I was heartened when the Prime Minister told us, when he became Prime Minister, that he had a “clear plan” to fix the problem. There was no plan. Instead, he pledged an extra £1 billion a year—the equivalent of yet another sticking plaster on an open wound of the kind we have seen before. The Local Government Association estimates that there will be a £3.6 billion gap in adult social care funding by 2024. Now the Prime Minister says that he will seek cross-party consensus. I hope that all parties will treat this with an open mind. We have had enough of the type of politicking that led to talk of the Labour death tax in 2010 and the Tory dementia tax in 2017. Such talk betrays the people who are vulnerable, lonely and in dire need. While Parliament has endlessly put this issue into the too-difficult box, tens of thousands of people have died waiting for a care package and tens of thousands of carers have sacrificed their own health and finances on the altar of the prevarication of legislators.

Carers contribute £132 billion to our economy, yet too many are burning out while they prop up an underfunded system. We must stop this now. The crisis is acute and growing worse by the day. The consensus that the Prime Minister says he is seeking is largely already there. There is broad agreement that public funding for social care needs must be significantly increased and that a balance needs to be struck between individual and collective responsibility for care costs. I draw your Lordships’ attention to the excellent report by the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, to which I hope he will refer.

When will the Government publish their plans for long-term reform? How will carers and those they care for be consulted? How will the Government seek this political consensus that they are talking about? This will of course take time and, as an urgent priority, the Government must invest the funding required to keep the social care system afloat until longer-term reforms are implemented. Will the Government meet the short-term funding gap for social care?

I turn to the welcome mention in the Queen’s Speech of the employment Bill and measures to support working carers. Carers UK—I declare an interest as a vice-president—welcomed the announcement of the introduction of a new entitlement to one week’s leave for unpaid carers. To be most effective, this entitlement must be paid and should be for up to 10 days per year. For the 5 million people in the United Kingdom who juggle working and unpaid caring, combining these responsibilities can be a real challenge, as is shown by the fact that 2.6 million people have already left their job to care for a loved one. Carers’ leave would be beneficial for both carers, by helping them to stay in work, and for employers, by helping to improve staff well-being. Of course, this has a very good economic knock-on effect, by enabling carers to maintain their incomes, so as not to build up poverty for the future and therefore have another generation of poor pensioners. Do the Government agree that the new entitlement to carers’ leave should be paid, and that the ability to have flexible working for carers makes very sound economic—as well as moral—good sense?