A campaigning Jesmond widower whose wife died this year has hit out the Government halving its plans to invest in social care, calling it a "slap in the face"
Bill Wilson went through a heartbreaking years-long fight to get his wife Dr Jo Wilson a social care placement after she was diagnosed with dementia. Jo died earlier this year, but Bill remains a passionate advocate for radically overhauling the social care system.
He has spoken out following news the Government has reneged on a previous pledge to invest at least £500 million to “transform the way we support the social care workforce". Instead, this week, the Department of Health and Social Care confirmed this figure will be £250 million.
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In response, Bill - who is from Jesmond - has joined charities and think-tanks who have called the move a "betrayal". He said: "My wife died recently after years of daily struggle with dementia. We fought all those years every single day for even just a few scraps from the Government funding coffers to go to social care and received little if anything.
"I vowed to drive forward the Social care agenda in her name and here we are again with funding slashed. How many times is this Government going to promise funding then take it away?
"It was only a year ago that Boris Johnson stood up in Parliament and said he was going to fix the long-term problems in social care. He announced a new tax - to raise about £12bn a year - it would be spent on health and social care costs only. But the UK's new Prime Minister has already scrapped that tax."
Bill also hit out at the way the planned lifetime cap on care costs and improved means testing had been deferred and said: "I like many families, carers and care providers have been left asking where the funding will now come from to fix a system, which I say is broken."
His comments echo criticism from charities including trade unions, charities and organisations such as the Nuffield Trust. The Centre for Ageing Better said the move was "extremely short-sighted and harmful".
Bill said care staff continued to be under-recognised and received poor training and little career progression - and he said putting money solely into the NHS was not a solution unless problems in social care were addressed. He added: "Don’t talk to me about about wanting a strong NHS when the fundamental floor is the lack of good or even basic social care.
"Queues of ambulances and long waiting lists are down to the lack of investment in social care. This slap in the face will only exacerbate an already failing system."
Various amounts of money were set out in the December 2021 People at the Heart of Care White Paper on adult social care reform, including £25 million to support unpaid carers and £300 million to integrate housing into local health and care strategies.
But this week, the Government did not mention these pledges and has confirmed it has taken a "difficult decision" not to provide the funding.
Social care minister Helen Whately, who told the annual Care England conference last month that she was part of a Government that “backs social care”, said the package announced on Tuesday “focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves”.
She said: “Care depends completely on the people who do the caring – that’s over a million care staff working in care homes and agencies, and countless relatives, friends and volunteers, acting out of the kindness of their hearts. That’s why this package of reforms focuses on recognising care with the status it deserves, while also focusing on the better use of technology, the power of data and digital care records, and extra funding for councils – aiming to make a care system we can be proud of.”
The Government said its “refreshed plan to bolster the adult social care workforce” would speed up discharge from hospital and accelerate the use of technology in the sector over the next two years.
The department said it will launch an Older People’s Housing Taskforce in partnership with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities “to decide how best to provide a greater range of suitable housing depending on the support people need”.
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