Unison union members employed by Oldham council‑owned company, MioCare, struck last week (photo: unisonnorthwest/Facebook)

Prime minister Andy Burnham’s promise of a “National Care Service”, running on similar principles to the NHS, was the centrepiece of Labour’s conference last month.

Britain’s broken social care system means that millions of people fear old age—and worry about their relatives.

But on closer examination, Burnham’s proposals have turned out to be somewhat less than what was promised.

Not only is the touted “free care” not really free, but the only care mentioned is for the elderly, with nothing said about younger adults needing care too.

Sandra, a residential carer in London, told Socialist Worker, that, while she welcomed his ­proposal, the details of how it would be funded and how far it would extend are vital.

“The report on how they plan to do this isn’t even due until 2027,” she said. “It is also far too limited. Burnham’s proposals are focused on personal care. But social care is much more than that.

“And, there are issues that I can see with it already.

“The key one is the plan to partly fund it through the removal of the ‘triple lock’ on pensions. This is very much in line with Burnham’s refusal to break with the self-imposed fiscal rules.”

Ending the triple lock guarantee risks the state pension ­gradually losing pace with earnings and ­causing pensioners’ income to fall in value compared to workers.

According to the charity Age UK, around 1.7 million people already live in pension poverty. Without the triple lock, that figure could rise quickly.

“A national care service should be funded through a ­redistribution of the wealth in society, not through money that could be going to ­people’s pensions,” says Sandra.

“It should be funded through a wealth tax, by taxing the ­corporations and the super-rich rather than going after pensioners. Many of whom are struggling to heat and eat as it is.”

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Sandra explained that Labour’s promise of a national care service is only worthwhile if it starts to tackle the private sector’s profiteering.

Around 83 percent of residential care services are privatised in Britain and 85 percent of all adult care homes in England are run for profit.
Reinvested

“A lot of that money goes to private equity companies with bases in tax havens overseas,” said Sandra. “That is money that should be ­reinvested in care.”

“There is also still the question of whether people will have to pay for their accommodation costs, which often means people have to sell their homes to cover the cost of ­residential care at the end of their ­lives.”

Burnham rightly says the social care crisis is so huge that it impacts all other aspects of healthcare. But that means there must be massive investment in both the NHS and care services—investment that he is yet to promise.

“There are currently medically fit patients remaining in hospital beds because the social care services do not have the capacity to take them on,” says Sandra.

“Social care has often been seen as the poor sister to healthcare, but actually we need an integrated system where the NHS and care work more in step with each other.

“The strain on social care and the NHS means that staffing levels are so low across health because people are leaving the sector due to overwork and poor wages.

“And when people do fight back for better pay or improved terms and conditions, goodwill is often ­weaponised against us.”

Care strikers say, ‘We need cash now’

In his big speech, Andy Burnham also promised “proper recognition” for the people doing care work.

But carers in Greater Manchester are refusing to wait until 2030 to be paid their dues.

Unison union members employed by Oldham council‑owned company, MioCare, struck for wages and sick pay for 48 hours last week.

The strikers provide extra support to people in their homes to allow them to continue to live independently.

“We aren’t paid the same as care workers in other parts of the MioCare firm. We all wear the same uniform, but we are earning £2.10 less,” one told Socialist Worker.

“We’re only asking for equal pay for the same work. We don’t want anything more. We’re only asking for what we need to live and what’s fair.

“We do everything for the people we support—we clean, cook, wash people and give people their medication. But when we get sick, there’s nothing there to support us.”

Another striker echoed this, saying, “Sick pay is the main thing. People are taking themselves into work who are not well because they don’t get paid when they’re sick.

“That puts vulnerable people at risk because workers can’t afford to stay at home.

“There’s one poor lady who got so deep in her overdraft that she tried to take her own life.”
Another striker interjected, saying, “Someone got paid £45 for a whole month from MioCare because she got an injury at work and couldn’t come in.”

Strikers said they also felt Burnham’s promise of a National Care Service lacked “meat on the bones” given the urgency of the crisis.

“This National Care Service isn’t going to be happening until 2030,” said one. “He talked about free personal care for those who need it. But I didn’t hear anything about a pay rise for those providing it.”

The striker pointed out that carers are often praised by governments only for them to try to hold down costs by worsening conditions of the people providing it.

“We’re needing fair pay now,” she said. “People can’t afford to do this job, that’s why employers can’t get the staff. They say it’s going to cost billions. Well, why don’t the richest people give us the money?

“Why don’t the politicians take a pay cut?”