A New Government: What This means to Older People?

On the 4th July, a landslide victory for a new government ushered in Keir Starmer as Britain’s new Prime Minister. Starmer won with the largest majority since Tony Blair, greater than both those of Clement Atlee and Margaret Thatcher, arguably the country’s two most socially transformative prime ministers in the past century. But what does this mean for older people?

The 2024 Labour Party manifesto outlined several key commitments for older people; we’ve summarised them here.

For the provision of person-centred care, the manifesto has a focus upon access to primary care and community services, and guarantees care to support treatment of ongoing and complex needs. The new government has committed to develop Neighbourhood Health Centres with district nursing, physiotherapy, palliative care and district GPs and to do this in a simpler, more concentrated way. Getting an appointment is a challenge, so it plans to reform this with thousands more GPs, and a modern booking system that would guarantee face-to-face appointments.

To bring back family doctors will help incentivise GPs to see the same people and build relationships over time and also help to manage chronic and complex conditions. Whilst this isn’t targeted specifically at older people, many of those affected by long-term health conditions will be older.

The new government has said that it wants 40,000 more appointments to be made available every week, and wants to double cancer scanners across the nation, and to have 8,500 new mental health staff within the NHS.

The new government wants less reliance on overseas workers in health and sector care and will aim to build domestic skill in this area and to establish a Fair Pay Agreement in care.

As we’re all aware, the NHS has been challenged with crippling strikes from its workforce over the last few years, and the new government want to address this too.

The manifesto also introduces a National Care Service (NCS) to deliver closer partnerships between local NHS and social care organisations.

We know that a manifesto is not a guarantee for making these things happen, and some of these things have been either delivered elsewhere (e.g. Scotland) or promised for delivery by previous governments in similar promises; so we will watch with interest to see whether a new government  will be able to invest more and make changes that we can all see in the health and social sector.

Author Bio: Chania Fox is a freelance writer with experience in publishing and copywriting. Chania has previously worked for Linen Press, the UK's leading independent female publishing press, as well as working as a copywriter for a global design consultancy with high-profile international clients. She is also available on Linkedin.