The Guardian reports that Shadow Care Minister Liz Kendall has suggested that Labour will deal with budgetary pressures on the NHS through savings made by fully integrating health and social care. The announcement comes after the Party faces pressures on ways to cover the budget needs of the NHS, particularly since last week Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls used an interview with the Telegraph to flatly reject both the idea of a 15% estates tax to fund care for the elderly, proposed by Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham, as well as a 1% rise in National Insurance contributions, to be earmarked for the NHS.
Kendall is expected to deliver a speech later today, as part of Labour’s “the Choice” series, where she will stress the pressures put on social care services through budget cuts and advance the Party’s plans “to fully join-up the NHS and social care so we get the best results for users and the best value for taxpayers’ money”.
Elias from PSI: As Labour’s “summer offensive” continues, the Party is keeping to its strategy of trying to shift attention to the NHS, an area where it traditionally has a lead over the Conservatives. Kendall’s proposals for joined up health and social care echo Andy Burnham’s latest speech on the NHS, where he called for stopping the “fragmentation of services” and moving to a model of whole person care.
