I recently spoke in a Westminster Hall Debate to mark ‘World Social Work Day 2021’. I thanked the 100,000 social workers in the UK, including the 320 in Leicester, for their hard work, passion and commitment to supporting people in our communities. Social workers have faced huge additional pressures […]
Social Care
Scores of housebound patients ‘have not yet had a Covid-19 vaccine’ despite many being high priority
Ministers have been warned for months now about low vaccination rates amongst housebound elderly people who are too frail, ill or anxious to travel to get their vaccine. The Government must get to grips with this problem as a matter of urgency. Ministers need a clear plan to increase uptake […]
Liz calls for social care reform to help our economic recovery from the pandemic
Yesterday I spoke in a Westminster Hall Debate on Social Care and the Social Care Workforce. I argued that reforming social care is one the biggest challenges facing our generation. The pandemic has brutally exposed the flaws in our social care system which is undervalued and underfunded. Reform is […]
Liz supports Young Carers Action Day 2021
Today is Young Carers Action Day, an annual campaign, ran by Carers Trust to raise awareness about the UK’s 800,000+ young carers. This year’s focus is on the amazing skills young carers gain through caring – like resilience, time management and empathy – which are so valuable in higher education […]
As Covid turns the crisis of social care into a calamity, the government does nothing
The Prime Minister promised on the steps of Downing Street in July 2019 that he would bring forward a plant to fix social care. Since then, the issue has been delayed again and again. Last week, the Chancellor said they were looking to work ‘cross-party’ on social care – but […]
Liz speaks at East Midlands International Women’s Day event
It was a pleasure to speak at East Midlands Labour Party’s International Women’s Day event yesterday evening. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, women have been more likely to be made redundant, see their pay packets cut, and bear the burden of unpaid work in the home. We’ve seen these gender inequalities […]
Liz speaks about lack of support for social care in the Budget
Rishi Sunak’s budget on Wednesday had absolutely no mention of social care. This pandemic has exposed the impact of 10 years of social care funding cuts, and our carer workers and families deserve better. The Chancellor then told the BBC that the reason that social care plans hadn’t been brought […]
Liz calls for strategy to vaccinate all care home staff
This week, we discovered that only 69% of care home staff in England have been vaccinated against coronavirus. In London, this is as low as 52%. This is incredibly worrying. We need a clear strategy from the Government, that addresses lies and misinformation about the vaccine. We also need […]
Chris Whitty: Medics and care staff have ‘professional responsibility’ to get Covid vaccine
Official data shows that only 52% of staff in care homes for the elderly in London have have their coronavirus jab. This is incredibly worrying – the vaccine could save their own lives, as well as the lives of people in care. The government must put in place a strategy […]
Covid-19: Care home residents in England to be allowed one regular visitor
The Government have announced that from March 8, care home residents in England will be allowed one regular visitor. This is something Labour has been campaigning on since last June. However, we need confidence that things will really change. We need legislation, to make visits to care homes a legal […]
Tragic toll year of loneliness has taken on elderly laid bare
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 […]
Liz speaks at ‘It’s Our Community’ Conference
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, […]