My written evidence to the UK Parliament Health and Social Care Committee regarding the #HealthBill was published a few weeks ago and is available here
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5902/cmpublic/Health/memo/HB64.htm
In it, I suggested that the Bill could allow for a long-overdue change to the ministerial duty: to recognise social care, as well as the NHS. This would correct the imbalance which currently exists between the duty, and the title, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. The title was amended in 2018 to add "and social care", and so acknowledge the importance of social care.
The connection between the two is made in Northern Ireland, where the duty includes "to promote a system of social care designed to secure improvement in the social well-being of people in Northern Ireland". This could provide a template for the amendment to the UK ministerial duty.
Summer 2026 in the UK has lived up to Wilson's quote "a week is a long time in politics". We now have a striking - and very welcome - focus on #socialcare not just at ministerial level, but from the Prime Minister.
So perhaps the the time has come for such an amendment - it would not be tokenistic. The Bill heads to the House of Lords in September, so if not now, then when?
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