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The Social Care Crunch

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Episode notes

This week the podcast looks at another of those knotty, seemingly intractable issues sat on Labour’s in-tray when they entered government last year; namely social care.

To look at how successive administrations have failed to grasp the nettle and deal with the rising costs of a sector that has ballooned in size to deal with our ageing population, host Alain Tolhurst is joined on the panel by Paulette Hamilton, Labour MP and the acting chair of the health and social care select committee, as well as Joe Robertson, Tory MP for the Isle of Wight who also sits on the select committee.

Alongside them are Lucinda Allen, policy fellow in social care at The Health Foundation, and Will Dalton, national officer for care at the GMB union, to discuss Andrew Dilnot’s infamous unimplemented review, Theresa May’s election-losing dementia tax, and what Keir Starmer’s government is doing to take on the care crisis.

They argue whether the latest review is another exercise in kicking the can down the road, and what impact this week’s immigration white paper will have on the sector’s massive vacancy issues, while later on in the episode Joe Dromey from the Fabian Society talks about the think tank's proposals for dealing with pay and recruitment.

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Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot