Social Care Brushed Aside Again

FPC is also paid to Care Home Residents which reduces the amount they have to pay to the care Home.

Let's not forget Johnson's 'oven-ready plan' to fix social care.

I don’t think Johnson had an oven ready plan for social care, he said he had an oven ready plan for Brexit. In any case, Covid, which arrived a mere 3/4 months after Johnson won the election, put paid to any chance of introducing an oven ready plan for social care, or any other plan come to that. Therefore there’s no point in harping on about it.
Blair commissioned an expensive review into social care but decided to shelve it’s recommendations as they were too expensive. I’m not expecting our new government to turn their attention any time soon to social care either. It seems things will continue as they are for some time. It’s simply not a priority for any government because it’s complex and expensive.

Boris Johnson did claim that he had an oven ready plan for social care when he came into office in 2019, but there was no developed plan.
Here is the history from the House of Commons Library to 2021.
commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8001/
There is a good summary here of the manifesto plans the Tories had for the recent election, which explains more, up to their planned start date for implementation in 2025.
www.communitycare.co.uk/2024/06/11/conservative-manifesto-pledge-to-implement-cap-on-care-costs-unfunded-warns-think-tank/#:~:text=In%20their%20election%20manifesto%2C%20published,implementation%20date%20by%20two%20years.
In fairness to the new government, this is such a complex area, it had taken the Tories (including the Covid period) 5 years to come up with their plan, so it’s unrealistic to expect major changes until this government has conducted their own analysis. I’d be surprised if we see implementation of new proposals within the first three years.

Thanks for the links Casdon.
Personally I don’t think that saying they hoped to fix the crisis in social care translates as an oven ready plan. Nonetheless it should be obvious to anyone that with the Covid pandemic arriving within a couple of months of that government taking office, that any embryonic plans to reform social care would be unable to be developed at that time. Basically then, Blair shelved it because it was too expensive, Johnson shelved it because of Covid, I have a feeling that Cameron made promises that were watered down and shelved, and I think Theresa May talked about it, but did nothing. No one wants to touch social care because of the expense, which is why I have little faith that this government, or the one after, will do anything about social care.

Actually I agree with you Casdon that this is a complex area, and it’s unrealistic to expect changes.

He may not have said 'oven ready plan' in respect of social care but on 24 July 2019, Johnson on the steps of 10 Downing Street promised he had a plan for social care: “I am announcing […] that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all, with a clear plan we have prepared''. He claimed to have a prepared plan to fix social care. Just another Johnson Tory porky.

Oh dear. Reeves has scrapped the Dilnot-proposed cap on social care. Wes Streeting said on 16 June during the election that he wanted to give 'the care sector “certainty” that the cap would be rolled out as planned from October 2025'. Obviously his statement was unreliable to say the least. He clearly does not carry enough weight in Cabinet.

Dickens I believe it was Mrs Thatcher who insisted on the outsourcing, which she thought would lead to competition and therefore be cheaper, and prevent social services chiefs from giving contracts and jobs to their friends and relations

Remember the mantra of the purchaser-provider split. The local council purchaser of services couldn’t also provide them.