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Liberal Democrat Older people's spokesman Paul Burstow has attacked the Westminster government over pay for social care staff, its treatment of elderly care workers and its refusal to follow the Scottish Executive in accepting in full the recommendations of the Sutherland Commission on Long Term care for pensioners.

The Edinburgh administration is to introduce free personal and nursing care for all pensioners who need it from April 1 next year.

Mr Burstow said this made English and Welsh pensioners into third class citizens and demanded big pay rises for social care staff who got less to look after frail old people that supermarket shelf stackers.

The £125 million package, which Scottish First Minister Henry McLeish unveiled last week involves government payments of £90 a week for personal care in residential homes and an additional £65 a week for those needing nursing care, together with the removal of all charges for personal care in the community.
There will also be extra funding for local authorities to help older people to stay in their own homes for longer. But the row over whether Alistair Darling's Department of Work and Pensions will continue to contribute the £20 million a year it currently pays in attendance allowance to old people in Scotland has still not been settled. Mr Darling is said to be resisting pressure to maintain the £55 a week payments in view of the free care scheme, but the Scottish Executive is understood to have budgeted to cover the shortfall if the cash is withdrawn.

Deputy First Minister and Scottish LibDem leader Jim Wallace said he was confident that current negotiations would either lead to Mr Darling backing down or the Treasury making up the difference by increasing the Scottish block grant by £20 million to reflect the saving made at Westminster.

Paul Burstow told the conference: "When it comes to care, Labour has relegated the elderly in England to the status of third class citizens.
"By accepting the Royal Commission's central proposal, the Scots are offering their senior citizens a package which will work in practice, end discrimination and deliver dignity."

And he launched a bitter attack on general pay and conditions for elderly care workers saying:"Today in this country Tesco pays people more to stack shelves than a care worker earns looking after a frail elderly person. Cans of beans are worth more than dignity in old age.

"Health and social care are two sides of the same coin. Under investment in social care undermines the NHS and causes gridlock in our care system."

He demanded and end to crisis management and "better rewards for social care staff, realism about care home fees and recognition that we need to invest in a skilled workforce.''

Mr Burstow published a document detailing the problems caused by bed blocking nationwide in hospitals by the lack of nursing and convalescent care for recovering pensioners.