7 The way forward
371. While there is welcome
consensus on several aspects of social care reform, a number of
key issues remain highly contentious and insufficiently addressed.
Many witnesses agreed that worthwhile and lasting reform will
only be achieved if consensus can be reached on these issues too,
so that the necessary tough decisions can be taken with broad
popular support.
372. Achieving consensus on
all these difficult and enduring issues requires calm, rational
deliberation and an informed national debate. We would have liked
to see all the political parties come together in that spirit
to map out a programme of sustainable reform. Instead, regrettably,
the Government is hastily drafting a White Paper while also rushing
through Parliament a hurriedly concocted Bill that cuts across
its own Green Paper, in a febrile atmosphere of unedifying pre-election
party-political squabbling and point-scoring.
373. There is still an opportunity,
in advance of the demographic challenges to come with the ageing
of the "baby boomers", to reform the social care system,
achieving consensus and creating a lasting solution that would
represent a "Beveridge" model for our time. Current
and future generations will be betrayed if the failure to achieve
consensus means that social
care reform is once more left to languish near the bottom of Government's
list of priorities in the next Parliament.
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