Government “repeatedly ignored” warnings over impact of cuts on the resilience of public services

• Services “stretched to breaking point” were left hugely underprepared for the pandemic, Kate Bell says in evidence to inquiry
• Huge failures in planning had devastating consequences, says Bell

The Assistant General Secretary of the TUC today (Monday) told the Covid Public Inquiry that the government repeatedly ignored “an unprecedented series of warnings” over the impact austerity and fragmentation on resilience of public services.

Kate Bell – who gave evidence to the inquiry this morning – said:

“A toxic combination of top-down restructuring, cuts to services and a squeeze on pay not only hurt health and social care workers – it impacted on patient safety too.

“Staff surveys at the time painted a bleak picture of unsafe staffing levels, services stretched to breaking point and morale through the floor.

“But rather than heed these unprecedented warnings, ministers repeated ignored them – leaving our public services hugely underprepared when the pandemic hit. This had devastating consequences.”

Highlighting the government’s failure to provide PPE for non-healthcare workers, Kate added:

“Not only did the government fail to get enough PPE for our health and social care workforce – they never even considered that other key workers might need them.

“This huge oversight and failure in planning meant that supermarket workers, bus drivers and other transport staff were left really exposed to the virus.

“The very people who kept our country going during the pandemic couldn’t access even basic protective equipment.”