Social care must be “key area of focus” in Covid inquiry, says Starmer

Keir Starmer has said that the social care sector must be a “key area of focus” in the coronavirus inquiry, declaring that the “failure to protect our care homes at the start of the pandemic was a national shame”.

At a meeting in Nottinghamshire today, the Labour leader met with care workers. He also met with bereaved families of Covid-19 victims yesterday, including people who lost relatives in care homes.

Starmer called on the government to take action now to establish what happened in care homes during the height of the pandemic, “so that lessons can be learned, and lives can be saved” ahead of a possible second wave.

During his visit, he said: “The government’s failure to protect our care homes at the start of the pandemic was a national shame. I pay tribute to care staff who did everything they could but were left without tests or protective equipment.

“An independent inquiry was always inevitable. But the Prime Minister must now guarantee that social care will be a key area of focus for that inquiry.

“We also need action now ahead of a possible second wave this winter. We need to get to the bottom of what happened in care homes so that lessons can be learned, and lives can be saved. We cannot afford for the same mistakes to be made again.”

Earlier in the year, the government commissioned a Preparing for a Challenging Winter report, which was published this week. The paper urges the government to make July and August a “period of intense preparation”.

Starmer raised this report with Boris Johnson in Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. He asked that the Prime Minister commit to implementing its recommendations, which set out steps to prevent the “reasonable worst-case scenario” of 120,000 more deaths.

But challenged over the details of the document, the Prime Minister failed to confirm that he had actually read the report. When asked if he had, he said only: “Of course I am aware of the report.”

A leaked version of a report on Exercise Cygnus – the exercise run in 2016 by the government simulating how the UK would handle a pandemic – stated that further planning was needed to prepare the social care system for such an event.

Labour highlighted that the report warned there was “little attention paid” to social care, and the chief executive of Care England revealed in May that the report’s “clear recommendations… haven’t been implemented”.

Care England’s Martin Green said: “It beggars belief. This is a report that made some really clear recommendations that haven’t been implemented. If they had put in place a response to every one, we would have been in a much better place at the start of this pandemic.”

Labour also emphasised reports that local authority social care directors had called for better supply plans two years ago, and warned that “demand for personal protective equipment could rapidly outstrip supply”.