Health Secretary Steve Barclay defends delay to social care cap

The health secretary has defended the delay to a cap on care costs in England, saying it will allow more funding for social care.

Under the plans people would have paid no more than £86,000 towards their personal care during their lifetime.

Steve Barclay said the delay was a “difficult decision” but the government was committed to the reforms.

He told the BBC the extra funding would help with discharging people from hospitals more quickly.

Mr Barclay said the “prime cause” of these issues was related to social care as people who were ready to be discharged could not be.

He added that this was having a knock-on affect on ambulance delays and challenges in A&E.

“We’re prioritising the funding we need to get that flow into the hospitals and key amongst that is getting more funding into social care,” Mr Barclay told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

Mr Barclay said there would be £2.8bn of funding for social care over the next year and £4.7bn the year after, allowing 200,000 more care packages to be delivered over the next two years.

People who are well enough to leave hospital are often not able to is because of a lack of support or care home places in the community.

The social care cap had been due to come into effect in October 2023 but will now be delayed by two years.

County councils in England had urged the government to delay implementation of the reforms because of staff shortages and financial pressures.

But the charity Age UK has said the delay to capping “catastrophic” care costs “raises serious questions over whether it will ever be introduced at all”.