National Care Service

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What are the implications for the Casey review? Is the noble Baroness free to make recommendations that may not fit the model that the Prime Minister has announced?

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What is the Government’s definition of what this service is to cover? Will there be any changes to continuing healthcare or funded nursing care?

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Is spending on the national care service dependent on savings being made from the triple lock? How much of a net increase in provision are the Government projecting?

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Does the Prime Minister's statement imply an end to payments from income for care home residents below the lower capital limit down to the weekly personal expenses allowance?

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Hinds thanked the Minister for the statement and expressed the need for a sustainable, affordable, and fair care system, emphasising the importance of finding common ground across the House. He questioned the implications of the Prime Minister's announcement for the Casey review and the clarity of the proposed service's scope, definitions, and funding. He also raised concerns about the sustainability of the plan given the lack of detailed information and the dependency on savings from the triple lock.

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Costigan welcomed the Government's £500 million investment in the fair pay agreement for social care, highlighting the need to value care workers properly to achieve a good quality social care service.

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Jones discussed the crisis in social care, highlighting the impact on the NHS and the need for everyone to be able to live independently with dignity. He cited the impact on councils and the Liberal Democrats' belief in the need for a change.

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Dalton inquired about the dovetailing of the national care service with end-of-life care and support for families and those at the end of their lives.

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Leigh raised concerns about the triple lock and the upper capital limit, suggesting a cap on lifetime contributions as a solution to the issue of people losing their money.

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Craft welcomed the statement and requested a meeting to discuss the development of a sufficient roadmap to community support for people with learning disabilities and autism.

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Slade proposed Richard's law, calling for all care workers to be registered with the Disclosure and Barring Service and on a single national carers register to professionalize the sector.

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The MP asked the Minister to outline how the Government will ensure that the national care service provides peace of mind to families and carers, regardless of their finances or location.

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The MP commended the Minister on recognising the challenges of social care and asked if the contours of cross-party discussions and the Casey commission are predetermined by the Prime Minister’s announcement.

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The MP expressed interest in the role of the unpaid carers champion and asked how it will ensure that the voices of carers and young carers are heard.

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The MP asked if the national care service can be funded through efficiencies in the NHS.

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The MP welcomed the Minister’s statement and asked if the national care service will be publicly run and involve co-production by people receiving care, care workers, and unpaid carers.

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The MP questioned the trauma of care, including the keeping of frail elderly people in acute hospital units and asked if the national care service will incorporate savings through NHS care in the community.

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The MP expressed pride in her mother’s dedication to the NHS and asked if the Minister will work with the Co-op party on care co-operatives.

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The MP raised a case where a constituent’s mother moved between councils and sought support, but the dispute was unresolved before her passing, and asked for steps to ensure continuity of social care across local authority borders.

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The MP raised the issue of unpaid carers struggling to balance caring responsibilities with paid employment and asked what steps the Government are taking to support carers in staying in work.

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The MP questioned the funding of the care system and the need for tax rises, and asked to rule out the death tax.

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I very much welcome the statement and any move towards a national care service, but my hon. Friend knows as much as I do that people often experience a clash of bureaucracies, which leads to a slowdown in the delivery of care or care packages. People are stuck in hospitals for a variety of reasons, but for many it is because that clash cannot be resolved to move them from hospital in a timely fashion. We cannot wait for that to be resolved; we need to resolve it now. Can she reassure me that she is working on that, because if we can solve that, we can solve large parts of the problem in this Parliament and not have to wait for the next?

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My constituent Maxwell has spinal muscular atrophy and needs a significant amount of personal care. He has just started a graduate job, but because of the frozen £23,250 capital limit, any savings he builds up go on care charges, so he cannot save a deposit for a home or for the safety net that his disability demands. The right hon. Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds) said that we assume this to be the case, but will the Minister confirm that free personal care will be included for working-age disabled adults such as Maxwell? Until it arrives, would she unfreeze and raise the capital limit so that we are not placing a limit on his aspiration?

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I declare an interest, as I have a close relative working in the care sector. I welcome the Minister’s statement on this important matter. Could she say more about how she and the Department plan to build consensus across the wider community and with stakeholders, as well as with political parties?

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I welcome the statement from the Minister, as I am sure will many people in North Herefordshire—people who draw on care and people who provide care, both paid and unpaid. Does the Minister agree that we need to end the lottery of care—the postcode lottery of care being provided in different ways in different places, the life lottery of people’s access to care being partly determined by their circumstances, and the lottery of whether someone ends up having catastrophic care costs at the end of their life and potentially losing their life savings? Can we agree that we need to ensure that care is locally provided but nationally funded, and will she lobby her colleague the Chancellor to include fair taxation of wealth in the mechanisms considered to fund that?

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I very much welcome my hon. Friend’s statement. We have talked about this issue for so many years, and it is time that we got on with it and tried to get cross-party agreement. While we are waiting for the Casey report—I know Louise from old, and she will be robust and independent in what she recommends—is it the idea that we will set out a national framework, where Government lay down standards and hopefully the funding, and then the service is organised at a local level by local authorities, working closely with primary care, public health and local housing providers, who are often missed out in the important join-up that we have to achieve?

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Those demographic statistics are alarming. In Powys, there are high average occupancy rates for nursing beds across community hospitals—91% in Llandrindod Wells and 82% in Ystradgynlais—yet Powys teaching health board is consulting on potentially cutting the number of community hospital beds from 160 to 60. Does the Minister agree that community hospital beds play a vital role in the care system, and does she share my concern that if those beds were cut, it would just mean that more elderly residents from Wales are left stranded in English hospitals?

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I join my hon. Friend in praising care workers up and down the country, and I pay particular tribute to those who gave such excellent care to both my parents in their final years. From day one as an MP, my constituents have come to me with increasingly distressing stories of what is happening when things go wrong, so I really welcome the long-term statement to put it right. While we wait for Baroness Casey, can my hon. Friend assure us that there is a plan to do the most urgent improvements starting now?

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I congratulate the Minister not only on the statement, but specifically on the creation of a national care service. It will undoubtedly have a transformational impact on so many people. Will she ensure that representatives from political parties in Wales can be included in some of the cross-party talks? Although the provision of social care in Wales is a devolved responsibility, there are important considerations, including the arrangements for cross-border packages and matters of funding, that are perhaps best understood and addressed at an early stage.

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I welcome the Government’s move towards a national care service because, as the Minister said in her statement, everybody knows that we will not fix the NHS until we fix social care. But tens of thousands of care workers currently face a change to their immigration status. We should not be changing the rules for those who are already here and making a valuable contribution to both the care sector and our wider society. Does the Minister agree?

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Could the Minister confirm, as I think she has in previous answers, that the interface between health and social care will remain front and centre of the national care service, not only for those being discharged from hospital but for those who are in care—particularly residential care—and face challenges in accessing health services?

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I really welcome this statement, especially the recognition of the trauma caused to families when services fail. That is why it is so important to preserve strong local services like Mary Ann Evans hospice in Nuneaton, which provides dignity in death to thousands of families at home but is currently on the breadline and in insolvency talks, with last-minute legacy donations extending the deadline from the end of this month to the end of the year. I am in talks with the integrated care board, and we are doing everything we can, but there is a fundamental problem with the funding level. What can we do to protect these fragile services now, so that we can build on them in the future?

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The creation of a national care service is in the best socialist traditions of the Labour party. However, pensioners funding its creation through the removal of the triple lock is not, especially when over 2 million pensioners live in poverty. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that the £15 billion savings from removing the triple lock is actually more like £4 billion. If there is a financial shortfall in providing the national care service, how will it be funded and realised?

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Scotland's health and social care partnerships face a £500 million funding shortfall, and the SNP has failed to deliver on its commitment to establish a national care service for Scotland. Will the Minister ensure that her counterparts in the Scottish Government are regularly updated on this work so they can learn how improvements in social care can be made effectively?

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With persistent vacancies in the care sector, can the Minister agree that building a national care service means improving care for older people but also creating rewarding career pathways for young people in her constituency through training and better care in the care sector?

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Some 84% of care beds in England are run by private companies, and Baroness Casey has highlighted that private equity is often holding councils to ransom. Can she confirm that Labour’s national care service will put an end to the essential care of our parents and grandparents being used as a profiteering investment vehicle by private equity?

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I would like to pay tribute to former Conservative county councillor David Westley, who recently passed away. He was the chair of Lancashire’s health and adult services scrutiny committee. Can the Minister assure me that the problems in rural care will be addressed as part of her plans?

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I welcome the Government’s commitment to putting unpaid carers at the heart of a national care service, but as I heard when I visited Blue Sky Carers Support hub in Bedford recently, this must mean more than words. What concrete, properly funded commitments will the Government make to ensure that unpaid carers receive meaningful breaks, financial security and support to balance caring with work or education—particularly for young carers—so that we do not just recognise carers but really care for the caregivers?

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I thank the Minister and the Prime Minister for not just stepping up on this but facing into some of the difficult choices, including the triple lock adjustment, that will be needed to fund it. Will the Minister assure my constituents that, over the next Parliament, every penny we are saving through that triple lock adjustment will be invested in ensuring that we have the care service my constituents deserve?

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The national care service would be the third reason why I would join the Labour party. I mention that because in my South Derbyshire constituency, we saw the closure of the most beloved care home, Castle Court care home in Gresley, by the Reform-led county council. Does the Minister agree that it is only ever Labour Governments who create the institutions that look after people when they need help the most?

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For too many of my constituents, it has been a national profit service, with many of the big care providers owned or backed by private venture capital. People feel that they have no voice when it comes to the care system, be they people in care, their families, or our amazing and brilliant care workers. The Prime Minister yesterday spoke about his father, and gave a powerful commitment that co-operation and co-operative values will be integral to how we build a service that we can be proud of. Will my hon. Friend give a commitment that the likes of the Co-operative party, but also Co-operatives UK and brilliant care co-operatives, will be fully involved in the Department’s work as we think about the diversity of provision that we need?