It is a fact that there is a currently a care crisis in the UK. Several media outlets regularly comment on the ageing British population and increasing needs of the elderly, while funding to meet these needs has been on the decline over the last decade. Looking to turn around his party’s poor fortunes in the previous three general elections, newly elected Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has promised to be “the voice of nine million carers” and bring an end to the sector’s woes.
Speaking via video link in his first speech to the Lib Dem party conference as its leader this week, Sir Ed said he would “stand up for carers”.
In an impassioned speech, Sir Ed recalled his teenage years, where he nursed his mother who suffered from bone cancer and would “take her tumblers of morphine” before he set off for school.
He also told of his experiences looking after his own son, who is severely disabled.
Sir Ed said: "John is 12, he can't walk by himself, he was nine when he first managed to say 'Daddy'. John needs 24/7 care - and probably always will.
"So, let me say this, to all of you who need care, to all of you who are carers...I understand what you're going through and I promise you this: I will be your voice. I will be the voice of the nine million carers in our country."
Sir Ed has already written to prime minister Boris Johnson, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and leading care organisations to begin cross-party talks on a “long-term, sustainable solution to the crisis in social care”, having criticised the PM during his speech for “not rising to the challenge” of handling Covid-19 and “failing” to "protect care homes" from the virus by providing the sector with adequate support and PPE provision.
As political parties begin to band together to find solutions, Britain’s leaders would do well to look at charitable concerns in the care sector and include them within its response.
Speaking to The Parliamentary Review, Christine Alexander, CEO of charity and care and support provider TuVida emphasised the need to resolve the issues facing the sector and ensure that small charities in the industry are united to create capacity and financial stability to help ease the woes of care.
She said: “There is an urgent need to bring together smaller charities who specialise in this sector to create capacity, economies of scale and financial stability. This will be essential if we are to ensure that funding provided has maximum impact and there is continuity of regular service provision in the longer term.
“Secondly, the needs of those who require care and provide unpaid caring services are increasing, and there is not an adequate supply of the resources necessary to provide support for them. Negative media coverage over recent years has led to a public perception that health and social care services in the UK are poor. Our country’s approach to the care of those with illnesses and disability has deteriorated not just in terms of practical care; there is also a seeming lack of compassion and empathy. The problem of isolation is increasing as communities become less collaborative and less prepared to support the weaker members of our society. This leads to society relying much more on institutional provision of services, which has become the focus of media attention.
“In spite of this picture, I believe that there are an increasing number of people who simply find the current situation unacceptable. They are determined to work together to bring the requirements of people with needs and the provision of decent, cost-effective caring services back into equilibrium. I see it in my workforce, and I see it in the thousands of families we support. I know there are many organisations in this country who feel as we do, and although the public may have lost trust in our sector, we are determined to work hard to rebuild it”.
While Alexander’s organisation is embarking on its own journey of organisational transformation and change to combat the trend of worsening, poor-quality and inadequately funded provision of care services and try to be part of the solution, the government must work in tandem with such organisations to yield the progress that the sector so desperately needs.
Should Sir Ed Davey fulfil his pledge and put his party at the heart of such action, then it could go some way toward healing the wounds from the “three deeply disappointing elections” the Lib Dems have weathered since entering into a coalition government with the Conservatives in 2010.
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
