Boris Johnson promises to 'fix the injustice of care home funding'

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said in his speech for the Conservative Party conference: "We will fix the injustice of care home funding. We will care for the carers as they care for us".

Speaking with the slogan of ’Build Back Better’ behind him, Boris Johnson said at the virtual conference: "We will do what all governments have shirked for decades.

"We will fix the injustice of care home funding, bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of millions.

"COVID has shone a spotlight on the difficulties of that sector in all parts of the UK, and to build back better we must respond. Care for the carers as they care for us."

'It's not enough to go back to normal'

The Prime Minister also said he planned to build 40 new hospitals and added "we will continue to recruit 50,000 more nurses.”

He said ”far too many people across the whole country who felt ignored and left out, that the government was not on their side. And so we can't now define the mission of this country as merely to restore normality - that isn't good enough.

"In the depths of the Second World War, when just about everything had gone wrong, the government sketched out a vision of the post-war new Jerusalem that they wanted to build, and that is what we're doing now, in the teeth of this pandemic."

Mr Johnson said: "After all we've been through it's not enough to go back to normal. We've been through too much.”

The care sector couldn’t agree more.

Having borne witness to decades of government promises to fix social care, many care leaders can’t help thinking they’ve heard all this before.

On his first day as Prime Minister, Mr Johnson stood on the steps of 10 Downing Street to tell the country: “We will fix the crisis in social care once and for all”. At the time he promised it was “time to change the record.”

After the speech, Care England which represents independent care homes (@careengland) tweeted 'Thank you @BorisJohnson for pledging to fix the injustice of care home funding and care for the carers as they care for us. This is welcome news, @CareEngland looks forward to helping these statement come to fruition'.

Simon Bottery senior fellow for social care at the The King’s Fund (@blimeysimon) tweeted: “I’d guess ‘bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of millions’ means pooling people’s social care costs. But to what extent? The phrase could apply equally to a full-blown social insurance system, free personal care at home or a cap on care costs.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner (@angelarayner) tweeted in response to Mr Johnson's speech: ‘I note, @Boris Johnson says we must care for the carers who care for us. How about a real living wage for all of our social care heroes for starters?’

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) tweeted at the end of September: “The cross-party talks on social care cannot wait any longer. I have invited Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer & leading care organisations to begin these talks in earnest and finally make the progress people deserve.’

During his speech, Mr Johnson also spoke about falling sick with COVID-19 and dismissed claims he had "lost his mojo". The PM said he believes he became so ill with the virus because “I was too fat" and revealed he has since lost 26lbs.

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