Labour has been calling for care home visits to resume for months. I wrote to Matt Hancock last June asking for families to be treated as ‘key workers’, with the same testing and PPE as staff. Now, we are almost a year into this pandemic, and blanket bans on care home visits are still in place. These bans have caused immense pain and sorrow for families, and harmed the health of their loved ones.
Care home residents are fading fast. Families cannot wait any longer to be reunited with their relatives. The Government must support calls to enshrine the right to family visits in law, and outline their plans to get family visits to start again.
Read the full story in the Daily Mirror.
Today, I spoke at the ‘It’s Our Community’ Conference, organised by the Yorkshire Socialist Health Association. It brought together providers, users, families and voluntary groups across Sheffield to discuss the need to transform social care and support for disabled adults in particular. I spoke about the prospects for the future, and how we can achieve them.
I believe that this pandemic has showed exactly why we need social care reform. We need a real transformation backed up with proper funding, as well as an immediate cash injection.
Any changes to social care must to prioritise prevention and early intervention. People using social care should also have a say over how it’s delivered, and we must make sure that those using social care can live the lives they want to lead.
In January I joined the Director of Public Health, Ivan Browne and others at a meeting of the African Heritage Alliance to discuss the vaccine roll out in Leicester.
When taking age into account analysis shows that, Black people are more than 4 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than white people. However, 72% of black people in the UK are hesitant about having the jab.
It is vitally important to dispel myths and misinformation about the vaccine and I encourage everyone to get their vaccine when they are offered.
I’m campaigning for more affordable housing in Leicester West – including building more social housing – and a fair deal for people who are private renters.
I’m campaigning for better services and support for older people, carers and their families, and a sustainable system for funding our NHS and social care in future.
I’m working to help your family by pressing for faster progress in local schools, more improvements in our NHS, and continued investment in children’s early years.
