Labor will aim to introduce a national care service in England with as much ambition as the 1945 government that introduced the NHS, the shadow health secretary has said, launching a review of how it would work.
In an interview with The Guardian, Wes Streeting said he had asked the Fabian Society to examine how the service would be funded and structured, with the aim of bringing it across various parliaments.
He said the immediate priority would be to provide better wages, training and full labor rights for caregivers, and stronger national standards. The “long-term vision” would be a national service on a par with Anurin Bevan’s vision for the NHS.
“I would love for a national care service to be provided on exactly the same terms as the publicly owned, publicly funded NHS, free at the point of use, but we have to be honest about the scale of the challenge So our starting point is to make sure we offer national standards for care users and better wages and conditions for staff working in social care, ”Streeting said.
He added: “I think the key to a national customer service is that it is a journey, not an event. We could not deliver it overnight or even in a single parliament.
“It’s about laying the groundwork for that in the first term of a Labor government and then trying to build on it in a second or third term.”
He expressed concern about many nursing homes owned by private equity groups, with one in seven not meeting standards and requiring improvements. The review will examine whether privately owned care homes can become publicly owned.
“If private providers want to continue to play a role in social care delivery, they need to provide good quality care and with a public service ethos,” he said.
Streeting said he had an “open mind” about who should be responsible for the publicly owned national care service, be it the NHS, town halls or any other body.
Former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn promised a national attention service to the 2019 manifesto, but his successor, Keir Starmer, has said he is clearing the board and rewriting the manifesto from scratch.
Streeting said a national helpline was a “pending matter” for the job, which published a white paper on the idea as one of its latest acts in government.
“As Keir Starmer put it this week, the Labor party is starting again and writing a manifesto that looks to the future unchained by the past. We will work to get a national care service,” he said.
“That is where he is a Worker and that is my commitment as a shadow health secretary. And one argument I want to convey is that unless we face the social care crisis, the NHS backwardness will be more difficult to resolve. “
In its review of social care, the Fabian Society will analyze the structure of the nursing home market and how the next Labor government will ensure good standards of care for all and professional standards for carers around the world. sector.
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As for the pay of health care workers, Streeting said there should be a significant increase. “If you look at how things have changed under the Conservatives, it used to be the case that care workers were paid 30 per cent more than retailers, but now they are paid 20 per cent less than retailers and now we are losing workers for companies like Amazon., which – let’s be honest – are not famous for their salary, terms and conditions “.
Last month, the Scottish government set out plans for a national care service to review adult care with an emphasis on home care. It would not nationalize the sector, but would make the heads of care companies directly accountable to Scottish ministers in a more centralized system.
Scottish Labor has said it is not a true national service, but a “power grab” that seeks to take authority out of town halls, while Unite called it an “incomprehensible, inconsistent and terrible bill”.