‘Our inadequate care system is going to get worse’ – Miliband

The government has spent its first year being reckless on the key issues that matter to people, particularly the health service, the Labour leader Ed Miliband has said.

On the NHS, he said, David Cameron was making history because he was the first Prime Minister to pledge to protect the health service from himself, his government and his policies.

Focusing on adult social care, Miliband told journalists at the Royal Festival Hall that recent revelations of abuse in care homes happened on the watch of the Care Quality Commission – indeed, they were “involved” in the failure. He also pointed the finger at the private sector.

“As we have seen previously with the banks, there are industries – and health and social care services are one such example – where corporate failure can have consequences far beyond the loss to shareholders and investors. Just as with the banks, in the end the government would have to step in and pick up the tab.

“We should not jump to the conclusion that all private homes are bad. They are not. But for these industries, effective regulation is critical. Currently regulation looks at the quality of care provided. The government must now also look at whether the regulation of this sector should be extended to cover the financial stability of organisations which provide these vital services for hundreds of thousands of elderly people. The government owes it to taxpayers, and they owe it to vulnerable people in these homes, and they owe it to their families.”

The Labour leader went on: “Ahead of the findings of the government’s Dilnot commission into the future of our care system, what has happened in recent weeks raises important questions about the future of our system of care.

“Not just about inspection and regulation. It raises questions about the status we give to people who perform the essential task of looking after elderly and vulnerable people. If it was my mother or father I would want the best, most qualified, people looking after them. Paid a decent wage. How we care for the elderly and vulnerable is a key test for the kind of country we are.

“And there are other questions. How we pay for care. What sort of care is available. We all know that this is a mounting crisis affecting millions of families round this country. Whether it is elderly people in care homes or those living at home, all of us know somebody who is facing the terrible anxiety caused by the inadequate care system. That is set to get worse as a result of reduced budgets over the coming years.

“What care should be provided and how it should be paid for will be addressed by the Dilnot commission when it reports before the summer recess. But we all know that there have been lots of reports into social care over the years. Every serious attempt to solve this pressing challenge has foundered, often on the failure to find a political consensus.

“I want to make a serious offer to David Cameron today. Let’s engage in cross-party talks around the Dilnot Commission’s recommendations to deliver the care system we need. We will come to those talks with an open mind about the best way forward, not simply advocating what we have proposed in the past.

“But the principles are clear – high quality care for those that need it, funded in a fair way, with properly accountability for those who deliver the care. Let’s give the British people the serious debate they deserve, so they can get the care system they deserve.

“It’s not just for the sake of our elderly parents but for our children who will inherit the country we are building. Let us make this the first step towards creating a fully reformed care system where people can grow old with dignity. Let’s get round the table, work in the national interest, towards real change which addresses one of the big long term problems in our country.”

Turning to deficit reduction, Miliband said that doubts were growing about the coalition’s approach. Labour would have tackled the deficit but this government was going “too far and fast”, hitting families and making it harder to reduce the deficit.

“Labour’s balanced plan would get the deficit down and put jobs first, getting people into work and off benefits,” he said. “But my criticism of this government’s economic policy – and indeed its whole approach – goes much further. Beyond austerity and pessimism, they have set out no sense of the big challenges facing the country, no plan for the future, and no sense of our national mission.

“The British people want more from their politics. That is why since I became leader of the Labour Party, I have set out about the three big challenges facing Britain today and in the future. The unprecedented risk to the promise of Britain that the next generation should do better than the last. And now there is a debate, led by Labour, about how a whole generation of young people can get jobs, education and housing. The emergence of a new inequality between not just the top and the bottom but between the very wealthy and everybody else. And the third challenge, how we build strong communities, about the ties that bind us together – friends, family and community life – is once more territory my party is occupying.”

Miliband said that instead of opting for easy answers and quick-fix solutions, he wanted Labour to be “crystal clear” that its mission was to meet these challenges facing the future of the country.

“It is not enough simply to be a good opposition,” he said. “It is not even enough to address the issues where we lost trust. Given the scale of the challenges facing Britain, we must once again be the party which offers a compelling and optimistic future. Labour is determined to offer Britain a new sense of national mission – a sense of hope and purpose – which contrasts with the narrow pessimism of the Tories.”