Last week I used my first opportunity to ask a question of Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions to raise the plight of a dementia patient facing the potential closure of a day centre in New Mills by Tory run Derbyshire County Council.
The Jubilee Centre is one of 11 care homes and 8 day centres across our county that could be closed if the Conservative council’s proposed cuts go through.
Supporting people with dementia and their families is personal to me. My own father suffered from Alzheimer’s and my mother was his main carer. So, I know firsthand what an amazing job so many family carers are doing day-in day-out.
My constituent, Pat Bailey, was diagnosed with dementia in 2016 and the Jubilee Centre is a lifeline for her and her family. Her husband, David, is her main carer and the Centre provides a vital respite for him. “I have time for myself for a few hours without having to worry about Pat being OK. It is hard to estimate the cost in monetary terms but without the support of the centre, I don’t think I’d have coped.”
The Prime Minister expressed his shock at the impact of these proposed cutbacks and pledged to provide councils with more stability and certainty through multi-year funding settlements after years of cuts to council budgets by the previous Conservative government.
Sadly, Pat’s story is not unique. Whitestones Care Home in Chapel-en-le-Frith is also earmarked for closure. 95-year-old Willina Richardson and her family have been left devastated by the situation. Willina is a dementia patient and registered blind. She was previously a resident of Goyt Valley House in New Mills before it was also closed by the Conservative County Council. Now she is facing another move, and her family are worried about the impact it will have on her health.
This attack on adult social care by the council is so short sighted. At a time when we need more and better social care the Conservatives are cutting it. Their proposals are causing great stress to patients, carers, and their families. I urge each of the Conservative Councillors, especially those representing wards in High Peak, to think again on these devastating cuts for older people and their families. I will keep campaigning and do everything I can to make them see sense.
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Watching my father disappear into Alzheimer’s is something my family will never forget. It is a story that, sadly, will feel painfully familiar to so many families across High Peak.
People often say that with Alzheimer’s and dementia you lose the person twice. First, as the illness slowly robs them of the person they once were, and then again when their body finally gives up after a long and cruel battle.
As heartbreaking as that is, it is often accompanied by another burden: the constant worry about how to provide the care they need, and how that care will be paid for.
For decades, social care has been the problem every politician acknowledges but no government has truly solved. Almost everyone agrees the system is broken. Yet whenever serious reform is proposed, the debate quickly descends into scare stories, political point-scoring and accusations of “death taxes”, leaving families exactly where they started.
That has to change.
Last week, Andy Burnham said he was prepared to spend political capital on fixing social care and to work with other political parties to build the consensus needed to make lasting reform possible.
I know this is deeply personal for Andy. His own father is living with Alzheimer’s. But long before that, as Health Secretary, he argued that social care should be valued alongside healthcare as an essential part of the system, not treated as an afterthought.
For too long, social care has been the forgotten partner of the NHS.
When we think about our health service, we rightly picture doctors, nurses and hospitals. But social care is every bit as vital. It helps older people remain independent, supports disabled adults to live fulfilling lives, gives families reassurance, and frees up hospital beds by helping people return home safely when they are ready.
When social care fails, the NHS feels the consequences. Hospital beds stay occupied, ambulance queues grow longer, families are left exhausted, and vulnerable people do not receive the support they deserve.
Years of underinvestment have left providers struggling to survive, care workers undervalued despite the extraordinary job they do, and families facing impossible choices at the most difficult moments of their lives.
Getting social care right is not simply about one public service. It is about making our entire health and care system work better.
Andy has instructed that the review of social care should report much sooner, with conclusions expected by this time next year. That gives us a real opportunity to have the honest, grown-up conversation the country has avoided for far too long.
As your MP, I will work with anyone - whatever their political party - who is serious about delivering the lasting reforms families deserve.
My father’s journey with Alzheimer’s will stay with me forever. It reinforced something I have always believed: every one of us deserves to grow old with dignity. Every family deserves the confidence that, when the time comes, good care will be there without fear, uncertainty or impossible financial decisions.
We’ve talked about fixing social care for long enough. It’s time we finally did it.
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