Afternoon summary
A decision on whether to bring forward the date when the state pension age rises to 68 has been postponed until after the next general election, the government has announced. The former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said putting off the decision was “not exactly a sign of strength”. (See 2.30pm.)
Keir Starmer has launched Labour’s campaign for the local elections saying Labour is “the party of lower taxes for working people”. (See 9.13am.)
Humza Yousaf’s first appearance at first minister’s questions in Holyrood has been disrupted by climate activists who want the government to stop funding new oil and gas projects. (See 3.44pm.)
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Archbishop of Canterbury calls for radical overhaul of social care system, saying current model 'cannot be tweaked'
In January the Church of England published a report from a Commission on Reimagining Care set up by the archbishops of Canterbury and York. It proposed a national care covenant as a means of implementing “a vision of one-another care, where we have a better sense of what we should do for each other in communities and neighbourhoods, find agreement about where different responsibilities lie, and build long-term networks and associations that will allow people to flourish”.
In a debate on the report in the House of Lords, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said the current social care system was broken and “cannot be tweaked”.
He went on:
Every part of society is needed to be involved in care.
We need an understanding that care and support is not an end itself, but the means by which every person can begin to fulfil their potential as it varies through life as human beings.
He also said cost should not be the starting point.
Funding matters. If it is our starting point, we will fail.
Once we know what kind of care system we are aiming for then we can begin see how it could progressively be paid for.
Much as I admire the Treasury, if we start with them we are pragmatic, but we are unlikely to be imaginative.
The revolutionary value which would be at the heart of our social care system is interdependence.
Interdependence takes us away from a narrow argument about who should provide care and instead says that responsibility lies with all of us to different degrees.
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