Health Secretary Steve Barclay defends delay to social care cap - BBC

Watch: Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay challenged on ambulance deaths.

The health secretary has defended the delay to a cap on care costs in England, saying it will allow more funding for social care.

Mr Barclay said the "prime cause" of this issue was related to social care as people who were ready to be discharged could not be.

"We're prioritising the funding we need to get that flow into the hospitals and key amongst that is getting more funding into social care," Mr Barclay told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

Mr Barclay said there would be £2.8bn of funding for social care over the next year and £4.7bn the year after, allowing 200,000 more care packages to be delivered.

But the charity Age UK has said the delay to capping "catastrophic" care costs "raises serious questions over whether it will ever be introduced at all".

Currently most people in England who have savings or assets of more than £23,250 pay for all the care they need at home or in a care home, meaning some may have to sell their house to cover the cost of their care.

Mr Barclay said the pressures on the NHS and social care were "predominantly" due to the impact of the pandemic.

Asked whether long delays for people waiting for ambulances had led to people dying unnecessarily, Mr Barclay said: "If there is a delay in an ambulance getting to someone… then obviously that is a material risk.".

Mr Barclay said he also wanted to have fewer central targets and devolve more NHS decision-making to a local level to deliver better value for money.