New care minister named as Alistair Burt

David Cameron has chosen Alistair Burt to be the new care minister in the Cabinet reshuffle.

Mr Burt, who will be responsible for older people, dementia, local government, adult social care, carers, end-of-life care, mental health services and prison services, takes over the role from Norman Lamb, who was generally well-liked in the care sector and held the post from September 2012.

He will also be in charge of seeing the Care Act through, including the cap on care costs which will come into force in April 2016.

In the last few months, Mr Lamb unveiled a green paper of proposals to give people with learning disabilities, autism and mental health conditions more rights around the care they receive.

This is currently under consultation and learning disability campaigners will be keen to see if Mr Burt, who was re-elected as MP for North East Bedfordshire in the general election, tries to make this into policy.

Simon Bottery, director of policy and external relations at Independent Age, welcomed the appointment of Alistair Burt as the new care minister, saying: “He has a tough brief, tacking the crucial issue of how to help the frail and elderly in our society through social care support after a period of severe cuts to local government budgets.

“However, the role also offers real opportunities, including the greater integration of health and social care services, most notably in greater Manchester.

“A key marker of Mr Burt’s success will be the extent to which social care comes to be seen as an essential part of a wider health and care system, rather than – as now – the poor relation to the NHS.”

Mr Burt served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in 1992, then Minister of State for Disabled People, in what was then the Department of Social Security.

In 2010, when the Conservatives joined the Lib Dems in a Coalition Government, Mr Burt was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

Underfunding of social care needs addressing

Care England has called on the new Cabinet to ensure that social care underfunding no longer remains off limits.

Its chief executive, Martin Green said: “We welcome the new Government but, given the precarious state of health and social care, it needs to remember that we will judge them on their performance. There has been too much of a chasm between the rhetoric of integrated care and the reality of a social care system that is undervalued and underfunded.

“The social care sector has borne the brunt of much negativity and is too often seen as the poor relation to health care.

“Let’s hope that the energy we saw in the election campaign extends to the reforms in social care, thereby allowing each citizen to have the dignity, care and attention that they deserve and need”.

Ring-fencing

Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group (York and North Yorkshire) is keen to meet Health Minister Alistair Burt to talk about the state of the social care sector.

He said: “Since 2010, £3.5bn has been taken from the social care system due to cuts to local authority budgets, leaving vast numbers of people without the care they need in care homes or their own home.

“We have to guard against this pattern being repeated in the next five years and the independent sector is eager to work with the Government to seek out solutions.

“The Government pledged to find the extra £8bn a year for the NHS but there have been no similar pledges to find the estimated extra £4.3bn a year social care is expected to need by 2020.

“This is wrong and we will be pressing the Minister to at the very least ring-fence spending on social care so that we do not begin a new parliament with some of the country’s oldest and most vulnerable adults not getting the care they need and deserve.”