Care work should be presented to young people as a 'proper career path', says Angela Rayner mid social care policy shake-up
Angela Rayner, who is also an unpaid carer for one of her children, said that some unpaid carers “feel that they have to get to breaking point” before they can access support
Speaking to LBC after Andy Burnham spoke extensively about social care, Rayner called for care work to be presented to young people as a “proper career path.”
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The cabinet minister, who was a carer before she went into politics, said it was “the most incredibly rewarding thing that I've ever done.”
“It wasn't the most highly paid, but it taught me a lot about humanity and people. I met judges and senior people who, when I was young, were not people like me, and yet I was able to be the person that they needed there in their hour of need.
"That broke down some of those barriers, those stereotypes, and it gave me an honour and a value to help somebody in their hour of need.”
Rayner, who is also an unpaid carer for one of her children, said that some unpaid carers “feel that they have to get to breaking point” before they can access support, and added the government needs to do more to recognise the work that unpaid carers do.
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“I look after my family because they’re my family, but, but I also contribute as part of that. And I think unpaid carers need that recognition because they do help society and the community by what they do. Of course they're going to do everything they can to help, but we've got to do everything we can to recognise that they need support and to give them that support. That's part of the national conversation as well.”
She told LBC that that support could come in the form of flexible working, but also assessing other policy areas currently in operation.
“We've already increased the amount of money to carers allowance, but is that working well? Is there more things we could do around the assessment process, around, you know, if you need adaptations?
"Is it working quickly enough? Is the system talking to each other so you're not waiting for such a thing to arrive? You know, you might need a new adaptation in the house. Is that happening quickly enough? You might need some respite. Is the respite available for unpaid carers?
“It’s about really listening to them and finding out where the challenges are and how we can make it easier for them and give them, as the Prime Minister said, a bit of breathing space to acknowledge the work that they're doing and the challenges that come with that.”
Setting out his initial plans from a care home in Enfield, the Prime Minister said that “in an ideal world" he "would not want anybody to have to sell their home to pay for care”, branding it a “horrendous” experience.
It comes as Burnham insisted that social care in England had become "as unfair as American healthcare".
The Prime Minister vowed to “be honest with people” and “do more” within existing resources first, as he admitted: "It needs to be recognised that people can see everything they've worked for wiped out with care."
Joined by Yvette Cooper and Baroness Casey as he unveiled plans to reform the crippled sector, Ms Casey admitted a "big conversation on care" was required, with the Prime Minister initiating cross-party talks on reforming the social care system.
Like the Prime Minister, Angela Rayner also paid tribute to former Prime Minister Keir Starmer - but told LBC that work on social care did not deal with the “underlying issue of a fragmented system that isn't working.”