UK govt launches huge social care reform

LONDON: The UK government on Friday launched the biggest reform in decades of Britain´s ailing social care system, aiming to help thousands struggling to look after elderly, sick or disabled relatives.

Numerous past bids by different governments to shake up a system, which for years has been badly-underfunded and overwhelmed by rising demand, have failed.

But Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was confident the long-term reforms will be a “triumph of hope over experience”.

“We´re trying to break that cycle of failure and build a new national consensus around social care, with cross-party talks starting next month,” he told the Press Association.

Streeting, however, warned that the creation of a National Care Service -- which he compared to the launch of the National Health Service in 1948 -- would take time.

And he highlighted how the cost of caring for the nation´s elderly was set to double in the next 20 years due to its ageing population.