Covid-19 report underscores need for PM to turn his social care ambitions into action, says IPPR

IPPR has reacted to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry's Module 6 report on the adult social care sector.

Harry Quilter-Pinner, executive director at IPPR who previously led all the think tank’s health and care research, said:

“This report shows why social care should never again be an ‘afterthought’. It rightly asks hard questions about the key decisions made in the care sector during the pandemic: discharging people from hospital into care homes, how PPE was allocated, and the rules that kept families from their loved ones.

“But the biggest lesson is that we went into the pandemic with a care sector that was under-resourced and lacked resilience after decades of neglect by politicians. Years of underfunding, a fragile provider market and a low-paid, overstretched workforce left care with nothing in reserve. When the crisis hit, these weaknesses cost lives.

“The prime minister has said he is going to fix the social care crisis. This is welcome – but we have heard it before. We now need to see plans for sustainable funding, a high skilled and well-paid workforce, and care treated as an equal partner to the NHS, not a ‘Cinderella service’. Free personal care, first proposed by IPPR in 2019, should be its foundation. Bereaved families and the people who rely on care today deserve nothing less than lasting change.”

ENDS

Harry Quilter-Pinner is available for interview

CONTACT

David Wastell, director of news and communication, 07921 403651 [email protected]

Rosie Okumbe, senior digital and media officer, 07825 185421 [email protected]  

NOTES TO EDITORS

IPPR first called for free adult social care in 2019: 
Social care: Free at the point of need - The case for free personal care in England, by Harry Quilter-Pinner and Dean Hochlaf https://www.ippr.org/articles/social-care-free-at-the-point-of-need

A further report set out wider reform needed across the social care sector: Ethical care: A bold reform agenda for adult social care, by Harry Quilter-Pinner  
https://www.ippr.org/articles/ethical-care

IPPR is the UK’s most influential think tank, with dozens of alumni in Downing Street, the cabinet and parliament. We are the ideas factory behind many of the current government’s flagship policies, including changes to fiscal rules, the creation of a National Wealth Fund, GB Energy, devolution, and reforms to the NHS. IPPR is an independent charity which has seconded staff to government departments including DHSC and DESNZ to support ministers on crucial policies such as the 10-year health plan and the industrial strategy: www.ippr.org