Yet another scandal is fully revealed, after years of neglecting adult social care by penny-pinching central government, hard-pressed local authorities and privatised care home companies. Of course the companies running them should have taken the protective steps necessary without falling back on state help. But it's the same story of private profits and the public sector taking the risk. This crisis proves we need a properly funded National Care Service linked to the NHS. There was something just like that in the recent Labour manifesto, but the great British public wasn't interested. |