GIVING a cautious welcome to the brand new Government’s first healthcare announcements, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, has expressed regret on the absence of provision in relation to social and palliative care.
Speaking within the House of Lords last week through the second of six days of debate on the King’s Speech (News, 19 July), Bishop Mullally welcomed the planned continuation of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, and the pledge to legislate to limit junk-food promoting to children and the sale of high-caffeine drinks.
“As we have now heard, obesity is certainly one of the foremost health challenges that we face, and, again, its impacts are hugely unequal.”
Bishop Mullally also welcomed commitments to banning “conversion practices” and updating the Mental Health Act, each of which she described as “long overdue”.
Many healthcare issues were rooted in inequality, she said, and cited figures from the charity Mind that “black persons are 4 times more prone to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white people, and greater than 11 times more prone to be the topic of a community treatment order. People living in areas of high deprivation are greater than 3.5 times more prone to be detained than those living in least deprived areas.”
Tackling inequality within the system couldn’t be achieved without the involvement of religion groups. “Faith observance is highest in essentially the most deprived areas. This implies that faith leaders have the potential to supply vital insight and access to those communities least prone to access preventive healthcare. Faith leaders are trusted of their communities and are worthwhile partners for improving the health of their community.
“Ensuring that culturally competent services can be found to everyone who requires them is important if this Government are to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy. I hope that this Government will construct on the work already undertaken on this area.”
The Bishop also urged the Government to expand the scope of the national curriculum to “promote key life skills, comparable to making financial education a component of PSHE at key stages 1 and a pair of, as beneficial by many financial literacy charities”.
Speaking in regards to the “disappointing” lack of mention of social care within the King’s Speech, she said: “The Government acknowledge that the sector is in need of deep reform. We have an ageing population that has more acute and complicated needs. People with care and support needs are sometimes unsupported in navigating the system. There are higher costs for councils at a time of restricted budgets. Unpaid carers provide take care of their family members, sometimes on the expense of their very own health, well-being and work.”
She continued: “We need a long-term funding settlement for local authorities and a workforce plan for the sector. I fear that without these measures we won’t achieve the positive vision of social care, because social care isn’t an end in itself, but is a method by which we are able to live lives of joy, fulfilment and purpose and contribute to the economic recovery of this country.”
This related to palliative care, which she also regretted was absent from the Speech. “Reliance on charitable donations implies that end-of-life care and provision varies depending on how affluent an area is. The cost of care shouldn’t be being met, and services are being reduced. In the center of a growing conversation about alternative options at the tip of life, it’s imperative that we properly fund palliative care.”
Later within the five-hour debate, the main target turned to technology. The Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, urged the Government to “hold together” the developments in AI “with deep insights into our humanity”.
He continued: “We must equip our young people to be masters of technology, not slaves to algorithms — capable of put the science to good use but not allow its creations to distort our humanity or society. The deep ethical questions raised by the sciences will run across every a part of this Government’s legislative programme.”
This included work and technology, opportunity and data risks, and the well-being of kids and vulnerable adults.
The Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Revd Stephen Conway, looked forward to the progress of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill and the work of the newly announced Child Poverty Unit. Echoing Bishop Mullally, he asked how faith communities is likely to be involved.
The current system of supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities had, he said, “created a shortage of faculty places in specialist schools” and “insufficient resources are provided in mainstream schools to supply support for youngsters’s needs”.
Responding to the talk on behalf of the Government, Baroness Merron said that the points about social care were well made, “that after many years of neglect, these challenges are significant and urgent. We will work with the sector to construct consensus on the longer-term reforms needed to create a sustainable national care service. We will make a start by delivering a long-overdue recent deal for care staff, ending the constant churn in social care and recruitment challenges.”