Labour promises free personal care for older people in bid to end 'national scandal'

Elderly people will be able to access free personal care to allow them to remain in their own homes under a multi-billion pound overhaul of social care by Labour.

In a keynote speech to the party's annual conference, John McDonnell will unveil a £6bn-a-year commitment to help vulnerable older people with everyday tasks such as bathing, getting out of bed and preparing food.

Labour said the plans would more than double the number of people receiving state-funded care as an ageing population and increased demands heaps pressure on the creaking system.

Care bosses have sounded the alarm over the government's failure to get to grips with the spiralling crisis following repeated delays of its social care green paper, which was originally due in 2017.

Mr McDonnell will say: "The truth is our social care sector is a national scandal. Nearly £8bn taken from council budgets for social care since 2010.

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"The result is one million people not getting the care they need. 87 people dying a day waiting for care More than five million unpaid carers looking after loved ones.

"And overworked, underpaid care workers only being allowed ten minute visits to those they care for because the current system won’t pay for more."

The shadow chancellor will add: "As the first building block in our new National Care Service, the next Labour government will introduce personal care free at the point of use in England.

"Funded not through the Conservatives’ gimmicky insurance schemes, but, like the NHS and our other essentials, through general taxation."

Currently, only people with low levels of savings receive publicly-funded personal care,

Widening free provision would ease the burden on NHS hospitals by preventing delayed discharges, where vulnerable patients cannot leave hospital due to a lack of care at home, despite being well enough to do so.

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It would also ensure greater parity of care for people with conditions such as dementia, while reducing the challenges faced by family members and other unpaid carers, Labour said.

As part of its plans, Labour pledged to end the use of zero-hour contracts, ensure carers are paid a real living wage and to end 15-minute care visits.

The move could save the NHS some £4.5bn a year by freeing up hospital beds, according to IPPR thinktank, which has campaigned for the move.

Director Tom Kibasi said: "With an ageing society, free social care is the new common sense and vastly preferable to complex and unfair insurance schemes.

"It is right to end the care lottery and provide security and dignity in older age."

Rehana Azam, national secretary at GMB, which represents care workers, welcomed a "bold plan to fix a social care sector that has been left to crumble around our ears".

“Our highly skilled members working in care are undervalued and underpaid public servants – GMB has been campaigning to professionalise the sector for many years," she said.

“The shadow chancellor has made a bold and welcome commitment not only to championing the role and contribution of care workers but to delivering the pay, working conditions and access to professional development that any working professional should expect."

Social care proved to be a major stumbling block for Theresa May in 2017 after she was forced into a u-turn on her manifesto pledge to increase the amount people paid towards their care - dubbed a 'dementia tax' by critics.

Responding, Caroline Dinenage, the minister for care said: "Thanks to our responsible management of the economy, this Conservative government is able to invest in our vital public services. At the spending round we announced an additional £1.5bn for social care, which comes alongside the largest increase in local government spending power since 2010.

"Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell would wreck the economy and make it harder to deliver for the people who need it the most. Labour have a track record of making empty promises - the truth is, under a Labour government there simply won't be enough money to pay for it.

“Only Boris Johnson and the Conservatives will boost our economy, so that we can properly fund our vital public services and give every older person the dignity and security that they deserve.”

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