The Tpas response to the Queen's Speech
Tuesday 11th of May 2021
The Queen’s Speech today was a relatively low key affair, with COVID measures restricting the pomp and ceremony. It was also low key in terms of new content, with most of what was covered already either underway or shared in advance.
In the current environment, we didn’t expect much from the Queen’s Speech and we knew there would probably not be a great deal in there directly for us or our members.
We remain deeply disappointed at the Government’s inaction on social care, and their apparent reluctance to develop multi-party solutions, or to recognise the important role of unpaid carers.
On social care, levelling up and planning reform, we wonder whether the proposed central government initiatives would have been needed if our colleagues in local government had been better supported to invest in locally-planned services backed with long-term funding.
We hope that the voices of local communities are heard loud and clear as these plans take shape and we will continue to do all we can to help on that.