Labour's Shocking Decision To Abandon Social Care Pledges: Why It's Time For The Public To Take Action!

If anyone was naively harbouring the hope that once in power, Labour would be bold, brave and bullish about tackling the catastrophic crisis within social care, think again.

Instead of seizing the opportunity to set itself apart from the complacent and cowardly Tory government, instead of embarking on a programme of urgent reforms to avert the impending implosion of our social care services, it has decided to ditch any reference to social care pledges from its manifesto.

Why? Because Labour is terrified that the Tory party will use it as a stick to beat them in the run up to the next election: " We need to give ourselves cover to do reform in the manifesto, without giving the Tories a target to attack us. We can't allow the issue to dominate a campaign again" (said a party source)

This is EXACTLY the issue that should dominate Labour's election campaign. The British public knows exactly where Labour truly stands on the other key election issue: Net Zero, and its commitment to meeting the 2030 and 2050 targets that will impoverish millions of UK citizens. This is a policy issue that would, if Labour had the balls, mark a clear line between themselves and the Conservatives, and potentially win Labour millions of votes.

Instead of hiding behind general, vague, non-commital plans to sort out the crisis in social care, Labour should grow some cojones, come out of the shadows, and make a bold, budgeted commitment to radical reform premised on an ambitious, growth oriented economic strategy.

Of course, it won't do any of this. Its commitment to Net Zero and continuing along the low growth trajectory that requires, will prevent it from introducing the urgent reforms required to avert the impending implosion of our health and social care system.

Where does this leave the millions of families struggling to source care support, the millions of us forced to give up work to provide essential care because our health and social services can no longer meet the needs of our elderly and disabled communities?

We have been abandoned to our fate by a political class that no longer represents our interests and which has neither the vision nor courage to introduce the radical reforms necessary to meet the material and support needs of the population.

We have been rendered politically homeless, without representation and, if we accept our fate, without hope. But we do not have to accept our fate. There is hope, and that hope resides in us.

We need to stop looking to the incumbent political class to sort out the monumental mess we're in, and start taking responsibility for rebuilding our common future together, from the bottom up. We must come together in our communities, put our heads together, explore solutions and unite across the nation in common purpose. And we must begin the arduous but necessary task of building new political organizations and movements to represent us.

And that is exactly what we are doing at the Together Declaration. From our humble but ambitious beginnings two years ago, we have made great strides together. We have helped to mobilize the public to fight back against the policy decisions that continue to limit our horizons, that impoverish our communities, that impede our progress towards a more prosperous future, one that will enable us to address the multiple crises impacting our public services.

Social care is at a crossroads. If we don't act now to change the trajectory of travel, millions more will fall victim to its failures. And if you think that you don't need to concern yourselves with the dire state of social care because it doesn't impact you directly, we urge you to think again. A stroke of misfortune could force you or a member of your family to draw on social care support in the near future. Where and who will you turn to if, God forbid, that should happen?

Leaving aside the fact that most of us will need to draw on social care support in our latter years, or the risk we or our families might need to do so sooner, we have a moral duty as citizens to look after each other. Mahatma Gandhi was right: 'the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members'.Do we want to be members of a society that turns its back on the vulnerable?

However, there is another reason we must come together and tackle the crisis within social care. Without a functioning social care system, millions of working people will have no choice but to join the 9 million already propping up the failing system. Millions more may be forced to give up work altogether to care for their families, with devastating consequences for the UK economy.

If we think the cost of living crisis is bad now, what will it look like five, ten years down the line, when millions more of us have been forced to give up paid employment and reduced to surviving on State benefits in order to provide the care the British State has demonstrated it is incapable of providing? The prospects are grim.

We owe it to ourselves, to our families, and our communities to act now. We can't wait for the political class to come to its senses, make the difficult decisions, and introduce the urgent reforms necessary.

The Together Social Care Cabinet team has already started the fight back. We have some big ideas but not all the answers. We need you the public to join us in our quest to build a social care system fit for purpose. We need your ideas, we need your input. We urgently need volunteers to join the team and grassroots activists on the ground to help mobilize the public and drive our shared vision for social care. Please join us!

Amanda Hunter

Chair of the Together Social Care Cabinet Workgroup and Co-founder of Unlock Care Homes

https://togetherdeclaration.org/