Playing politics with social care

According to the CQC, another 1.7 million adults will need care by

2030, putting even greater stress on the health and social-care system at a time when the public purse-strings will be at their tightest.

The Commission's remedy is one that few with argue with – tailoring care to individuals' personal needs, keeping them out of hospital and moving away from the centralised, one-size-fits-all approach.

However, while these conclusions may be sensible, they are not surprising, which makes the Government's lack of action in this regard over the past 13 years all the more reprehensible. Indeed, during the years of plenty, Gordon Brown insisted that long-term care could not be afforded.

Why, then, is the Prime Minister now trying to push through poorly

thought out plans for long-term care, disregarding the claims put forward by those who would actually deliver the service that it is unaffordable and unworkable? For that is the thrust of a letter by 78 council leaders, including heads of Labour authorities.

With Labour and the Tories making conflicting claims about attempts to reach a consensus on the issue, it is clear that social care is being treated as little more than a political football, with any constructive ideas being drowned out by electioneering, at the very time when, as the CQC makes clear, careful, long-term planning is needed. It is hard to gainsay the claim by former Health Minister Lord Warner that elderly and vulnerable people are being made the victims of a cruel political deception.