Brexit has delayed plans to deal with adult social care crisis, minister admits

New plans to deal with Britain’s growing adult social care crisis have been hit by Brexit, a minister admitted today.

Caroline Dinenage said a long-awaited green paper on social care was ready to be published but had not yet been released as Brexit was taking “centre stage”.

As Britain’s population ages, hundreds of thousands of elderly people face daily struggles due to a lack of support, according to campaigners. Age UK stated that it had taken more than 700 days since the Government promised a green paper on social care to deal with the issue.

Care minister Ms Dinenage told Sky News: “It’s coming, it’s ready. Of course, there have been a few other little political things that have cropped up in the meantime, which have taken very much centre stage. But we are very keen that the adult social care document gets published very shortly.”

Pressed on whether she meant Brexit when she referred to “little things”, she added: “I do.” Health chiefs are warning that proposed post-Brexit immigration rules could hit EU workers in social care in the UK, who number more than 100,000, if the Government presses ahead with a proposed £30,000 salary threshold for skilled migrants to come to work here.

Ms Dinenage urged people to voice their concerns about the limit, stressing: “The salary threshold is being consulted on at the moment... people should definitely get involved in that consultation.” She stressed that there was a “settlement scheme” to encourage EU workers to stay in Britain, adding that there were 8,500 more citizens from EU countries working here in social care than before the 2016 Brexit referendum.

The Government has launched a recruitment campaign to try to fill 110,000 vacancies in the social care workforce.

More than 1.45 million work in social care but an extra 650,000 will be needed by 2035 due to an ageing population, ministers said.