Health Secretary Steve Barclay defends delay to social care cap

The wellness caput has defended the hold to a headdress connected attraction costs successful England, saying it volition let much backing for societal care.

Under the plans radical would person paid nary much than £86,000 towards their idiosyncratic attraction during their lifetime.

Steve Barclay said the hold was a "difficult decision" but the authorities was committed to the reforms.

He told the BBC the other backing would assistance with discharging radical from hospitals much quickly.

Mr Barclay said the "prime cause" of these issues was related to societal attraction arsenic radical who were acceptable to beryllium discharged could not be.

He added that this was having a knock-on impact connected ambulance delays and challenges successful A&E.

"We're prioritising the backing we request to get that travel into the hospitals and cardinal amongst that is getting much backing into societal care," Mr Barclay told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

Mr Barclay said determination would beryllium £2.8bn of backing for societal attraction implicit the adjacent twelvemonth and £4.7bn the twelvemonth after, allowing 200,000 much attraction packages to beryllium delivered implicit the adjacent 2 years.

People who are good capable to permission infirmary are often not capable to is due to the fact that of a deficiency of enactment oregon attraction location places successful the community.

The societal attraction headdress had been owed to travel into effect successful October 2023 but volition present beryllium delayed by 2 years.

But the foundation Age UK has said the hold to capping "catastrophic" attraction costs "raises superior questions implicit whether it volition ever beryllium introduced astatine all".