Independent mayoral candidate for York and North Yorkshire, Keith Tordoff, has called for root and branch reform of social care to serve the needs of older and vulnerable people in the region.

The mayoral candidate, who is a is a patron of Dementia Forward and was awarded the MBE in 2018 for services to business and the community, recently met with Mike Padgham, chair of the social care provider organisation, The Independent Care Group (ICG).

He said: “Chronic under-funding, a lack of proper pay and recognition for the workforce and providers leaving the sector will all need to be tackled if we are to provide the care that people deserve.

“We should be judged as a society by the way we look after our older people and at the moment we are letting them down. It may need some heads banging together but we have to improve the funding for social care, pay the workforce properly and end the exodus from the sector that is currently going on.

“Social care provides a vital service to the fabric of our society and to our local economy. If elected, I will be making reform a high priority to bring about real improvement to the quality of life of people living here in our region.”

Padgham, who has also held talks with the Conservative candidate for the mayoral post, Keane Duncan, and hopes to meet with other candidates shortly, said: “Whilst we continue to campaign at a national level for government change to social care, it is also vital that we enlist the support of local politicians to do all they can to bring about change at a local and regional level.

“Measures to get more funding in to the local delivery of care and to provide better pay for the workforce so that we can recruit are all immediate and urgent priorities for this region.”

The ICG is campaigning for social care reform to be included in the main political parties’ manifestos ahead of the next general election.

The mayoral election for York and North Yorkshire will be held on 2 May.