National Carers Week: Bearing the Burden of a Broken System

It’s National Carers Week, in which we celebrate the selfless contribution of carers. But the harsh truth is that underpaid carers are the ones propping up a broken social care system. And in General Election season, none of the political parties has a plan to fix it.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/11/social-care-dementia-tax-carers

When they make claims about taxes and budgets, they’re just burying their heads in the sand. This really doesn’t need to be a party political issue — we urgently need to put aside our differences, face up to the problem and work to sort it out.

Take Cambridgeshire County Council, where the cost of social care is skyrocketing. The County Council is spending £8.2 million more than it had budgeted for its children, education and family services. One child’s social care placement costs Cambridgeshire County Council £85,000 a week. A report today revealed that the County Council pays £25m a year on taxis to ferry SEND pupils to school, which is over 8% of the Council’s total budget.

Many of us like to moan when we pick up the tab for this in our ever-increasing Council Tax bill, but the truth is that Councils HAVE to spend this money. It’s a legal requirement, not a choice. 

But the bill for health and social care would be MUCH higher without the selfless contribution of carers, most of whom are paid minimum wage or nothing at all.

As an independent, I won’t be able to decide how we tackle this—at least not alone. But I can clearly see the scale of the problem and its impact on council budgets.

As we celebrate Carers Week we think of those who walk drive or cycle in all weathers and all times of day and night to offer care services. But also those at home caring around the clock for loved ones

But rather than just applauding them, perhaps we could thank them more by working together to reduce their burden by fixing a broken system.