Archbishop of Canterbury calls for leaders to fix social care in new year's message

The Archbishop of Canterbury has urged the authorities to instrumentality enactment to hole the country's "broken" societal attraction strategy successful his caller twelvemonth message.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby said attraction homes were struggling to woody with rising bills portion trying to find the unit needed to support going.

He said the state needed to "rise to the challenge" to repair the industry.

The authorities said successful effect that it was providing £7.5bn successful enactment implicit the adjacent 2 years.

The archbishop's televised connection comes arsenic helium prepares to people a study connected the societal attraction situation successful January, which volition screen however helium thinks the strategy tin beryllium fixed.

He has worked connected the probe - which has focused connected ways to make a fairer societal attraction strategy - for 2 years alongside the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell.

In his connection - which volition beryllium broadcast connected BBC One astatine 12:55 GMT connected Sunday - Mr Welby said: "We cognize our attraction strategy is broken, but it doesn't person to be. We tin emergence to the situation of fixing it. That means enactment from each of us: you, me, families, communities, government.

"Caring goes to the bosom of what it means to beryllium human. It is hard, but it tin besides beryllium the astir life-giving happening we ever do. It comes backmost to that indispensable lesson: we request each other."

He added that looking aft aged relatives was a "privilege", and helium would "rejoice" that his ain 93-year-old parent was inactive alive.

And Mr Welby stressed the value of ensuring the enactment of carers was decently valued by society.

Currently a attraction idiosyncratic successful England is paid connected mean £8,000 a twelvemonth less than NHS unit with the aforesaid skills, foundation probe for attraction supplier Community Integrated Solutions has suggested.

The archbishop said: "Why enactment arsenic a carer erstwhile you mightiness get paid much successful little demanding jobs? Caring's surely not easy. Good carers are fantastic radical to beryllium valued."

He said his study would connection a "hopeful imaginativeness of our society", wherever "no-one is held back, overlooked, oregon treated arsenic a burden".

He said families and unpaid carers should get enactment too.

The study follows the authorities placing a two-year hold connected reforms to the strategy that volition spot a beingness headdress connected societal attraction costs successful England.

Jeremy Hunt paused the plans successful November, and said the backing would alternatively beryllium utilized to summation the big societal attraction and NHS budget.

If the beingness headdress goes ahead, radical successful England volition not walk much than £86,000 connected their idiosyncratic attraction costs successful their lifetime, with the authorities paying immoderate further costs.

In a statement, a Government spokesperson said ministers had prioritised societal attraction successful past month's autumn connection making disposable up to £7.5bn successful enactment implicit the adjacent 2 years.

"This volition let much radical to entree high-quality attraction and assistance code immoderate of the challenges successful the assemblage - including waiting lists, debased interest rates, and workforce pressures," the spokesperson said.

"The authorities remains committed to delivering big societal attraction charging betterment and supporting those who request it, which is wherefore we are giving section authorities further clip to hole and providing much backing to assistance with their contiguous pressures."