Social care spending may lose out to education, hints Gordon Brown

Chancellor Gordon Brown today labelled key social care issues as “the greatest failures of social policy” historically but said education would be the top priority in a Brown-led government.

In a Labour conference speech, Brown said services for children in care and disabled children, the care of older people and the treatment of offenders were successive governments’ greatest social policy failings.

But he repeated a promise to raise per-pupil school spending from £5,500 to £8,000 a year, signalling other services, including social care, would fare significantly less well in next year’s comprehensive spending review.

Brown called for greater support for parents, more recognition for carers and promised to fully value and fund the third sector. He also backed the “double devolution” agenda of transferring power from Whitehall to councils and communities.