Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash welcomes Prime Minister Andy Burnham's pledge to fix social care system
Like Prime Minister Andy Burnham, my family has experienced the reality of Alzheimer’s.
My dad lives with the condition so I know first-hand the heartbreak, exhaustion and uncertainty that dementia brings to families.
It is why I believe fixing our broken social care system is one of the biggest responsibilities facing our country.
For decades, governments of every colour have promised to fix it, only for it to be kicked further down the road.
Meanwhile, around two million adults in England are living with unmet care needs.
Councils are under immense financial pressure, providers are struggling to recruit and retain staff and families are left to pick up the pieces, often at enormous personal cost.
Here in Hartlepool, we know those pressures all too well.
We have an ageing population, dedicated care workers who too often feel undervalued and countless unpaid carers, like my mum, who quietly sacrifice careers, finances and their own wellbeing to look after the people they love.
They are the reason the system still functions. Without them, it would collapse.
That is why I welcome Andy Burnham’s determination to finally grasp this issue. The creation of Baroness Louise Casey’s independent commission and the commitment to build a National Care Service recognise something that should never have been in doubt: social care is every bit as important as the NHS and deserves the same long-term thinking.
But what frustrates me is how quickly some politicians reach for the easy headline instead of the hard answer.
If your entire contribution to the debate is to throw stones from the sidelines while refusing to offer a credible alternative, then you are part of the problem, not the solution.
Fixing social care will be difficult. It will require honesty about funding, difficult decisions and cross-party maturity. There will be disagreements but criticism without solutions is simply performance politics.
Families coping with Alzheimer’s, dementia, disability or frailty don’t care who gets the political credit.
They care whether mum gets the support she needs. Whether sad can stay in his own home. Whether a husband, wife or son can keep going without reaching breaking point.
They deserve better than another decade of politicians chasing headlines while leaving the system exactly as it is.
It’s time to stop exploiting the crisis and start fixing it.