Why the Government must view the social care challenge as an opportunity to be grasped - The Yorkshire Post says

One of the reasons the NHS has not been able to cope has been due to a social care sector that has been under-resourced for decades.

Under successive governments, care has been neglected, leading to care workers not being paid enough for them to want to remain in the sector while simultaneously making it very difficult to recruit new staff.

Those that remain in care see it as a calling. For example Leona McInally, a staff member at Alba Rose care home, who would love to spend more time with residents but finds herself “a lot more stretched”.

In North Yorkshire, between three and four hundred care home beds have been lost. While a scheme designed to help care homes at risk of going under has seen a huge uptick in pleas for help. That is not the sign of a healthy sector.

The majority of people in this country are feeling the pinch right now and the last thing many will want to see is another tax being introduced. But a health and social care levy would at least help correct the course of a ship that is headed towards disaster. In fact, it was a policy of Boris Johnson’s government that successive administrations have lost their nerve on. A levy should just be the start.

With an ageing population, the crisis in care can no longer be ignored. The time for bold action is now. Social care needs to be treated with the same reverence as the NHS. As long time campaigner and care home owner Mike Padgham suggests we need a National Care Service. Just looking at it as a political calculation, it could well be the best route back to power for the Tory party if, as predicted, it suffers electoral oblivion at the next General Election.