Future of Health and Care

Munira Wilson Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Yes. There are measures in this White Paper that precisely pick up the work of the prevention Green Paper that my hon. Friend did so much to shape when he was in the Department with me. In fact, many of the proposals in the White Paper are built from conversations that he and I shared. I want to put on the record my gratitude for the work that he did in shaping this agenda, because ultimately a population health agenda is an agenda about the prevention of ill health. Of course we must—and we will—treat those who become ill, but it is far better for everybody to support people to take a shared responsibility, including their own personal responsibility to stay healthy in the first place. The population health agenda that will be at the heart of the integrated care systems is ultimately a preventive agenda, and one that I am very glad to hear that he supports so wholeheartedly.

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD) [V]]

On this day eight years ago, the Government announced and then legislated for a new funding model for social care, which the Tories then scrapped two years later. Eight years on, we have yet another NHS reform announcement, but only yet another promise to reform social care. With 25,000 care home deaths during the pandemic, what will it take for the Prime Minister to make good on his promise to fix social care, and when will the Secretary of State start the long-promised cross-party talks to find a solution?

[Matt Hancock]

On the contrary—this White Paper covers health and care. It covers the integration of the NHS and social care at a local level. Of course there is further work on funding, as we have committed to in our manifesto, but the integration of those services, which has been so important during the pandemic, is one of the critical pieces of the forthcoming health and care Bill.