Government’s inaction on social care due to lack of female policymakers, says author Kate Mosse

Author Kate Mosse has said the lack of action on social care has partly been driven by the shortage of women involved in the Government’s decision-making process.

The Labyrinth author, who has been a carer for 12 years, said the fact there are “very few women in the room” means the issue has not been taken seriously enough.

This is despite social care being “enormously an area where women work in paid and unpaid” roles, she told the PA news agency.

Mosse said too few of the people involved with running social care have first-hand experience in the area.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has previously said improving social care is among his priorities and he intends to put it on a “sustainable footing for the future”.

However Mosse the Government “feel that there isn’t enough fury” about the issue and it is “not worth their while” addressing structural problems within the system.

Mosse is a carer to her mother-in-law.

“The issue in social care and who cares for them and how it’s paid for and how it works is at crisis point,” she said.

The Department of Health and Social Care have been contacted for comment.

Mosse will discuss her experiences of the NHS during a London Literature Festival event with author Michael Rosen.

“Doing an event like this as part of the literature festival and at the Southbank Centre, one of the great world centres of combined arts of all disciplines, is so, so important,” she said.

The arts can be part of a “healing process” as we exit the pandemic, Mosse added.

Her London Literature Festival event will take place at the Southbank Centre on October 30.

Copyright (c) PA Media Ltd. 2021, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Pan Mcmillan.