Carers should be the best paid people in society, not the worst, Andy Burnham has said in a speech calling for an urgent overhaul of the social care system.
The prime minister said it was a “major dereliction of public duty” that politicians had not been able to solve the social care crisis as he spoke at a care home in Enfield, north London.
“It’s shameful to be honest that politicians have put point scoring before fixing this issue,” he said.
Mr Burnham is set to hold a cross-party meeting to discuss tackling the crisis in adult social care, as he pledges to “put everything I’ve got” into fixing the system.
Both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats accepted the Prime Minister’s invitation “to build that spirit of collaboration from the start”, while Nigel Farage hit out at Mr Burnham for ignoring Reform UK.
In his opening remarks on social care, Mr Burnham said that he felt urged to speak “from the heart” as his father was currently receiving care. He added he wanted to start with speaking about what is “good about the system”, adding: “I am talking about the people who’ve cared for my dad. Hundreds of them we’ve seen and we’ve watched. When someone in your family is receiving care, you look at everything through new eyes, don’t you?”
The prime minister said it was “humbling” to watch carers at work, adding: “If you think about that, you know, bringing all of that to the care of someone else’s relative, it’s just an incredible thing, isn’t it?
“They should be the best-paid people in society, not the worst.”
He reflected on how the staff were instead on “poverty pay” as he was made aware of “somebody homeless in a working in a care setting, living out of a mobile home.”
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