Where next on social care?

There is, as Paul Goodman notes, a grim tide of stories about the vulnerable — and their maltreatment — in the papers today. Perhaps the most disgraceful is the case highlighted by last night’s Panorama, of the abuse suffered by adults with learning disabilities at a specialist hospital in Bristol, which has led to four arrests. But there is also the slow financial collapse of Southern Cross, the country’s largest care home operator. The FT’s Jim Pickard has a useful summary of the situation here. But the basic point is that if Southern Cross shatters, then over 30,000 elderly people will be relying on other groups, landlords and councils to pick up the pieces. There is a lot of tragic potential in that uncertainty.

Political questions and difficulties abound, not least the urgent matter of what provisions the government can put in place for those 30,000, if any.