Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 01 September 2020
The last time Labour was in power, child poverty halved, and I am not sure that I got a yes or a no to the question that I put. Therefore, I am not quite sure whether families who live in the private rented sector will take any crumb of comfort from what the First Minister has just said.
Over the past six months, no part of our society has been more tragically hit by Covid-19 than our care homes. It is clear that our care system is not fit for purpose, so I welcome the announcement of a review of the care sector. I hope that that review will include a review of the financing of the care sector, because it has been underresourced for too long. However, the deep-seated challenge that we face means that additional funding alone will not fix the broken system.
The First Minister has said for some time that she sympathises with my calls for a national care service. Today’s announcement of a review is a welcome signal of intent, but there was a review of residential care in 2014 that led to barely any changes at all.
Time is running out. This is the final year of this parliamentary session. Will the First Minister take the opportunity to confirm today not only that she intends to create a national care service but when she will do so? Will she confirm that she will act immediately to level up the terms and conditions of the extraordinary workforce that delivers care, which she has spoken of?
In her statement, the First Minister drew a comparison with our national health service. Can she confirm that, as with our national health service, the profit motive will be removed from the care of our oldest and most vulnerable citizens, because we cannot be content simply to go back to how things were in the care sector?