What does your appointment as shadow minister for social care mean to you and what relevant experience are you able to bring to the role?
I’m humbled and excited to have been appointed to the role. I know from my own experiences with my dad’s care towards the end of his life that social care is absolutely essential in enabling people to live flourishing, dignified and prosperous lives. However, I’m acutely aware that for many people, social care is failing in that mission.
We’ve had 13 years of neglect, with a government that has prioritised short-term fixes in place of proper, long-term planning. I’m not interested in this sticking-plaster thinking; I’m interested in how we reform the system, tackle the workforce crisis and prioritise ‘home-first’ care in local communities right across the country.
For nearly two years, I’ve worked as Labour’s shadow minister for public health, focusing on things like regional and socioeconomic inequalities. I hope to bring this experience to my new role, along with my interest in the power and potential of local government.
What are your key priorities for the role? How do you intend to get up to speed and engage with the sector? Engagement is also a two-way process, what do you need from the sector to execute your role effectively?
My immediate priority is to tackle the crisis in recruitment and retention. We have staff shortages of more than 150,000. That is just totally unsustainable and a damning indictment of years of Conservative inaction.
I’ll be working very closely with deputy leader Angela Rayner and my boss shadow secretary of state Wes Streeting to deliver a Fair Pay Agreement in adult social care. Workers deserve better rights at work, fair pay and proper training that offers opportunities for progression. The next Labour government will make that a reality.
In the long term, I’ll be working with users and families and the social care workforce to co-produce a plan to build a National Care Service.
Building a National Care Service will be no easy task
My message to the sector would be that my door is open, and I’m always interested to hear about the daily challenges you face, and how we can address these.
How will you work with your colleagues on the Labour front bench to ensure you deliver practical solutions to the challenges facing the sector?
Well, I’m very lucky to be working in a front bench team that is chocked full of talent and experience. As I say, working alongside Angela will be key, both in terms of delivering this Fair Pay Agreement but also in enshrining the principle of home-first and integrated care into local systems.
But delivering practical solutions to the challenges faced by the sector will also mean engaging with colleagues in our business team, our science innovation and technology team, and our work and pensions team. This will continue in government, as I feel very strongly that building a social care system that is fit for the future will require collaboration right across Whitehall.
What do you see as the core weaknesses in the government’s approach to the issues adult social care is currently facing?
I think the government has been far too slow to react to challenges in the sector and suffers from an almost institutional reluctance to tackle complex problems. We’ve had years and years of broken promises, most notably Boris Johnson’s pledge on the steps of Downing Street to ‘fix social care’. Three years on, not only has this promise not been kept, but we’ve actually seen the government row back on commitments on training and care integration.
Fast-forward to today, and we now have a government that is totally rudderless, lurching from crisis to crisis and in no position to take the ambitious and bold steps needed to address the profound challenges in adult social care. All the while, users and their families, the care workforce and unpaid carers are all suffering. It’s maddening, and change can’t come soon enough.
Recruitment is one of the most significant challenges facing the sector. How would a Labour government get to grips with the shortage of staff and low retention rates?
It’s a huge challenge and one that is dominating much of my time. Angela has set out our offer to deliver a Fair Pay Agreement across the social care sector. It’s our ambition that by empowering workers to negotiate better rights at work, fair pay and proper training, we can rapidly improve retention and recruitment.
The next Labour government will also require all care providers to demonstrate financial sustainability and responsible tax practices, to value their staff and to deliver high-quality care for service users before they are allowed to receive contracts from local authorities and before they can gain registration from the Care Quality Commission. I don’t want to see contracts being handed out to providers who don’t treat their staff properly; it’s bad for staff and bad for those receiving care, so we’ll take action to clamp down on this.
Care workers are absolutely vital, so moving forward I’m keen to explore how we can improve career progression within the sector and make becoming a care professional an attractive career path for people to take.
Your colleagues and indeed your predecessor have spoken about a National Health and Care Service, but uncertainty remains as to what this means exactly. How do you see the relationship between the health service and the care service: one cohesive unit or two bodies united by a common brand?
Building a National Care Service will be no easy task, so it’s right that we take time to hear from experts, users and providers about how we deliver this.
Labour has been clear that we want to see a National Care Service that is delivered locally but underpinned by high national standards. We envisage it being separate to the NHS, but would like to see far better local partnerships between the NHS and social care on things like hospital discharge, home-first care and prevention. This will also mean properly supporting unpaid carers and recognising the importance of the work that they do.
Some NHS trusts are acting as trailblazers, voluntarily giving up funding to invest in local social care beds and recruitment to tackle delayed discharges. It’s better value for money and means better care for patients. The test for ICSs is whether they can encourage more of this.