The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England General Synod have called for a “national covenant on social care” that might give clear responsibilities in adult social care to families, communities and each local and national government.
Prior to her calling to ordination, Archbishop Sarah Mullally served as England’s Chief Nursing Officer.
Speaking because the newly installed Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah said the present care system was “not working”.
She emphasised the importance of care work, but added that two million people over the age of 65 and 1.5 million people of working age are currently not receiving the care they need.
“Care delivered well could be transformative and enables us to live lives to the complete … However too many struggle to access the care that they need,” she said.
With local authorities struggling to present the required help, the burden of care often falls upon unpaid carers.
Dame Sarah told the General Synod, “I would like to recognise the labor that unpaid carers give day after day.”
Research has suggested that many unpaid carers work as much as 90 hours or more per week.
The Synod supported “a recent deal for unpaid carers” that might provide them with practical, financial and emotional support. The plan also envisions the federal government issuing a guarantee for “universal access to care and support” and financial assistance with the fee of care.
Under the plan, the Church of England would also run its own network of venues up and down the nation for people to receive support and a way of community.
The Archbishop said, “[The Archbishops’ Commission on social care] called for a covenant because that idea includes greater than just impersonal transactions. It represents a relationship and an obligation between people.
“A covenant is a press release of solidarity with others, it’s a pledge to work along with each other, towards a typical goal, even when that work becomes hard and sophisticated.”
She continued, “Synod, our care system will not be working – largely because our society has forgotten that living in community requires all to contribute and to receive.
“The Commission reminded us that there’s inherent dignity in every human being. All are made within the image of God – and that dignity will not be eroded by disability, illness or the necessity for care.”
She also called upon the Church to be clear that folks usually are not merely “economic units for productivity, but people, people worthy of access to care and support which each one in every of us would require in our lives in some unspecified time in the future”.
 The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England General Synod have called for a “national...){kind=link}