Unless Labour wakes up on social care, tragedies will happen

The new government is showing every sign that it intends to ignore the crisis in social care. It has to change course

• Social care chiefs sound alarm at Labour’s ‘deafening silence’ on sector

Summertime, 160 years ago. Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to then secretary of war Edwin Stanton, wrote: “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Those words could be applied to a plethora of current, global challenges – climate change, inequality, war in Europe – but it seems social care might well be an exception.

For decades, successive UK governments have failed to take responsibility for a growing social care crisis. This government must not continue that pattern. Yet, in a little over one month in office, the government has done and said little to suggest that social care under their watch will fare much better, a view reinforced by the deafening silence on social care in Sir Keir Starmer’s speech on 27 August. We urge the government to change course.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk

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