Responding to Jeremy Hunt's first speech on social care since being appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Independent Age, the older people's charity, said:
“These principles for a new social care system are what we have been crying out to hear, but these words need to be backed up with far more detail and action. In January, we launched seven key tests for the Government’s green paper, echoed in the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s seven principles of reform set out today. However, as well as making care better for the future, we need bold and meaningful action to address the crisis faced by the older people who are using the social care system now.
"As the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care suggested earlier today, it is a cause for regret that care has worsened because it has been politicised, so we’re calling on all politicians to look beyond party politics to urgently create an integrated health and social care system that ends antiquated, siloed practices and is one where older people can thrive, not just survive.”