Social care absent from Tory-Lib Dem coalition document

The social care agenda is absent from the Conservative-Liberal Democrats coaltion document.

The social care agenda is absent from the Conservative-Liberal Democrats coaltion document.

The coalition document has just been published on the Conservative Party website, but it contains no reference to social care or social work. There are also no references to sorting out long-term funding of social care, child poverty, or the wider children and family agenda.

This is reinforced by the appointment of Michael Gove as education secretary, rather than children’s, schools and families secretary – the post held by his predecessor Ed Balls.

The coalition document does pledge to end the detention of children for immigration purposes.

It also contains a whole section on reforming pensions and welfare support. All existing welfare to work programmes will end and a single welfare to
work programme to help all unemployed people get back into work will be created.

Receipt of benefits for those able to work will be conditional on the willingness to work. And contracts for welfare to work service providers will be realigned “to reflect more closely the results they achieve in getting people back into work.”

The King’s Fund’s chief executive, Professor Chris Ham, said: “The momentum established on social care reform must not be lost. This should be an urgent priority for the first session of the new parliament, with clear proposals for reform set out within a year. Politicians from all the parties talked before the election about the need for consensus on the way forward – whether or not this is achieved will be a key test of whether coalition government delivers a more constructive approach to politics.”

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