High quality social care

Everyone deserves high quality social care if they need it. Yet hundreds of thousands of people in England are waiting for care.

Many are stranded in hospital beds due to the lack of capacity in care homes and amongst community carers.

The Conservatives promised to ‘fix’ the crisis in our social care system, so that one one would have to sell their house to pay for care and that they would not raise tax to do it.

They have broken all these promises.

That’s why I’m supporting the Lib Dem plans for reform which means introducing free personal care based on the model introduced by the Liberal Democrats in Scotland in 2002.

Other reforms include:

• Hiring more social care staff, providing training and advancement, and paying them a decent wage by introducing a Carer’s Minimum Wage.

• Increasing the Carer’s Allowance so that unpaid carers have the support they so desperately need.

• Introducing a statutory guarantee of regular respite breaks for unpaid carers.

The good news is that Epsom and St Helier health trust has one of the best records for freeing up beds, thanks to close collaboration between local agencies.

Nevertheless, we need more beds and reform to social care, otherwise our health trust will remain under enormous pressure. That is something that I want to help change.