In the biggest set of local elections ever, one issue should predominate. Social care. It’s the main thing many councils actually do, what many spend the largest chunk of their budget on. Social care was also, according to Ipsos MORI, a top priority for voters even before the pandemic (ranking behind only the NHS and Brexit in 2019 pre-General Election polls). And of the 151 councils in England with overall responsibility for social care, including shires, metropolitan and unitary authorities – more than half – around 80 – are electing some or all of their councillors tomorrow.
Take Hampshire – where 953 people have so far died with COVID-19 whilst supposedly being sheltered in care homes, one of the highest figures in the country. Or West Sussex, which has seen 664 such deaths. Or the unitary authority of Southend, where 130 people died in these circumstances, or the metropolitan borough of Dudley, where 150 did. Across England, there have been nearly 30,000 COVID deaths in care homes to date – and they’re still happening, a daily litany of tragedy.
A stony silence
Yet Hampshire Conservatives’ manifesto says nothing about what they’ll do to improve the broken, largely privatised, care provision facing our older and disabled people. It has merely a vague statement about “supporting active lifestyles and reducing health inequalities”, next to a picture of older people doing aerobics. Their party colleagues in West Sussex take a similar approach, with a manifesto crammed with detailed figures on everything from potholes to super-fast broadband, but on social care, just a vague pledge to “keep people safe from vulnerable situations, enabling them to live independently with extra support if needed”.
