2019 Election: Boris Johnson leaves social care in 'too difficult box' but Labour vows to end 'crisis'

Conservative leader Boris Johnson has side-stepped social care in his manifesto and is accused of running from an election minefield that may blow up in his face if he utters the words ‘social care plan’, contrasting with Labour which promises free personal care and a £100,000 lifetime care costs cap.

With an eye on his message ‘Get Brexit Done’, Boris Johnson has delivered a slimline manifesto that plays it safe with the electorate, perhaps hoping to avoid his predecessor Theresa May’s mistake of including social care proposals like the ‘dementia tax’ which bombed in the 2017 election.

Boris Johnson made a promise on his first day ‘to fix social care once and for all’ but the Conservative’s 64-page 'Get Brexit Done' manifesto is lighter than most, with more pictures but little answers for social care.

We will 'bring forward an answer'

His manifesto reads ‘We will build a cross-party consensus to bring forward an answer that solves the problem, commands the widest possible support and stands the test of time. That consensus will consider a range of options but one condition we do make is that nobody needing care should be forced to sell their home to pay for it.’

Health secretary Matt Hancock has promised the Conservatives will work with Labour and other parties to decide on social care reforms. But Jeremy Corbyn has not confirmed he will work with the Conservatives to build a cross-party consensus on social care.

Conservatives: Social care back in the ‘too difficult box'

Boris Johnson has already promised an extra £1 billion for social care in England for the year (beginning April 2020), but his manifesto extends this to £1 billion every year until 2024/25.

Care experts have said at least £8 billion a year is needed for social care in England to get it back to 2010 funding levels.

In a statement, the social care thinktank The King’s Fund called the Conservative's additional £1 billion 'not enough to meet rising demand for care while maintaining the current quality and accessibility of services'.

‘Despite making a similar pledge to bring forward reform in 2017, social care funding has once again been put back in the too difficult box. ‘Viewing the debate only in terms of older people not having to sell their homes is a disappointingly narrow framing of the problems in social care, and cross-party talks without a concrete proposal are unlikely to deliver meaningful reform.’

Boris Johnson has promised to double research funding into dementia by £83m a year to over £160 million a year and speed up trials for new treatments.

Ian Wilson, chief executive at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: “Dementia research must be a national priority, whoever forms our next government. We would want to see this investment come into action swiftly to enable further increases to reach the one per cent investment we need by 2025.”

Conservative manifesto pledges include:

• Keeping ‘triple lock’ on state pension - meaning the state pension will rise by CPI measure of inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent each year.

• Provide £74 million over three years for extra capacity in community care settings for those with learning disabilities and autism to make it easier for them to be discharged from hospital.

• 6,000 more GPs in England by 2024-25 and 50,000 more nurses with students receiving up to £8,000 annual maintenance grant every year.

• Currently, over 25s earning the National Living Wage receive £8.21 an hour – the party pledges to increase this to £10.50 an hour over next six years.

Labour Party: Free personal care for over 65s

With the slogan ‘It’s Time For Real Change’ flashed up in fuchsia pink behind him, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn launched the party’s 107-page election manifesto.

Labour is planning a National Care Service for England and promises free personal care for the over-65s and will invest £10.8 billion by 2023/24.

Free personal care will include help getting people in and out of bed, washed and dressed, with the aim of extending this to all working-age adults later. But the free personal care offer will not cover accommodation charges at care homes.

Labour said the party will ‘ensure no one ever again needs to face catastrophic care costs of more than £100,000 for the care they need in old age’ by introducing a lifetime cap on personal contributions to care costs.

In his manifesto, Jeremy Corbyn states ‘We will end the social care crisis that has left 1.5 million elderly people without the care they need. Labour will fund free personal care for older people and extra care packages.’

In response, The King’s Fund stated: ‘Free personal care and a cap on personal contributions to care costs won’t solve all the challenges facing social care services, but the policy would represent a significant step towards a fairer system.'

Labour manifesto pledges include:

• Double the number of people receiving publicly-funded care packages including support for autistic people and people with learning disabilities to move out from inappropriate inpatient hospital settings.

• Ensure ‘care is delivered for people, not for profit’ with care provider contracts not awarded to organisations ‘that do not pay their fair share of taxes and do not meet our high standards of quality care’.

• Invest extra £1.6 billion a year for mental health services

• Freeze state pension age at 66 and keep the triple-lock for existing pensioners.

• All workers aged 16+ to get £10 an hour within the next year with a Real Living Wage.

• Abolish prescription, basic dentistry and hospital car parking charges.

Liberal Democrats promise ‘Professional Body of Care Workers’

From a nightclub in Camden, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson launched the party's 96-page manifesto,‘Stop Brexit Build A Brighter Future’ and promised to introduce professional regulation of all care home managers, who would also be required to have a relevant qualification.

The Liberal Democrat party promised to raise the status of caring and promised to create a Professional Body for Care Workers to promote clear career pathways and improved pay structures.

It will also set a target that 70 per cent of care staff should have an NVQ level 2 or equivalent (currently levels are around 50 per cent).

The party plan to raise £7 billion a year over five years by putting 1p on Income Tax - a total of £35 billion - with the money ringfenced for the NHS and social care.

Liberal Democrats pledges include:

• A cap on the costs of care.

• Introduce a statutory independent budget monitoring body for health and care, to report every three years on how much money the system needs to deliver safe, sustainable care.

• Health and Care tax, offset by other tax reductions.

• Free end-of-life social care in the long term.

• Establish a cross-party health and social care convention to agree long-term sustainable funding for social care.

The Brexit Party: Social care nursing qualification

The Brexit Party's 22-page 'Contract with the people' manifesto promises to introduce a new nursing qualification in social care and has said it will open access to nursing professions for people without a degree. It will also offer 24-hour GP surgeries.

The Green Party: Free personal care

The Green Party's leader Caroline Lucas is offering £4.5 billion a year to provide free social care for over-65s.

The party's 92-page 'If Not Now, When?' manifesto promised to introduce a Universal Basic Income (UBI) , for all to replace Universal Credit. The UBI will be offered at either the adult rate (£89 per week) or pensioner rate (£178 per week). Disabled people will receive an extra supplement to their UBI as well as lone pensioners.

Plaid Cymru: Free social care at point of need

In Plaid Cymru's 45-page 'Wales, it's Us' manifesto, the party's leader Adam Price is promising free social care at the point of need in a new National Health and Social Care Service - at a cost of an extra £300 million a year.

It pledged 'parity of pay and terms of conditions' for social care workers and health workers.

SNP to scrap non-residential social care charges

The Scottish National Party (SNP)'s leader Nicola Sturgeon published a 52-page 'Stronger Scotland' manifesto promising to protect 'triple lock' pensions. She also pledged to scrap non-residential social care charges, if re-elected as First Minister in 2021. Unlike England, Scotland already offers free personal care, under the SNP, for people aged 65 but free personal care allowances in Scotland only meet around 25 per cent of the weekly costs of a residential care home.

With manifesto pledges published for 12 December general election, many reliant on social care will be hoping the new year that is 2020 will not bring with it a list of u-turns and broken resolutions.