PM candidates urged to make social care a priority

Candidates seeking to become the next Prime Minister are being urged to make social care their number one priority.

The Independent Care Group said urgent action is required to tackle the social care crisis, which the BBC recently highlighted in a Panorama documentary.

Chai Mike Padgham said: “Given this opportunity for the candidates to set out their stall on how they plan to look after this growing and vulnerable section of society, social care has hardly had a mention. For me, it should be their number one domestic priority.

“Instead, you would be forgiven for thinking there is only one topic on which the contest will be decided and that is Brexit.

“To those candidates this is a big opportunity to be bold and tackle social care, to tread where politician after politician has feared to go before and to resolve the issues that have dogged previous governments.

“All of the leadership candidates would do well to visit social care on the front line to see the crisis for themselves. I would make each and every one of them most welcome here in Yorkshire.”

The Independent Care Group is calling for more spending on social care, integration of the sector with the NHS, better recognition and freedom of movement post-Brexit for care staff and the treatment of dementia as a health issue so that people with it are cared for like those with cancer or heart disease.