What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The Health Secretary a badge for care workers, which he said may help them access similar perks to NHS staff.

Matt Hancock unveiled a single brand which said simply "carers" to make sure staff received the same treatment.

"This badge will be a badge of honour in a very real sense, allowing social care staff proudly and publicly to identify themselves, just like NHS staff do with that famous blue and white logo," he said.

"I know that many businesses will want to offer the same recognition and benefits as they do wonderfully to the NHS."

The Health Secretary said supermarkets had been asked to give the same priority access to care workers as NHS staff and he hoped that the badge would make it easier to do so.

But he was accused of having the wrong priorities.

(Image: PA)

Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth tweeted: "A badge? Really a badge??"

Labour MP Sarah Owen tweeted: "A badge?!?! How about some PPE and testing as a priority @MattHancock. That is what care workers need."

Rehana Azam, GMB National Secretary for Public Services said: “Our care workers need more than a badge and a pat on their head to define their precious role in society.

"They need the protective equipment and testing on the front line now to protect their lives.

"Ministers should be moving mountains to support our care sector to get the kit workers need available where and when they need it.

"Care workers are serially undervalued, highly skilled and massively underpaid. It will take far more than branding to get them the recognition and support they deserve and that battle will continue until care workers are treated the same as NHS workers.”

Mr Hancock has also announced new procedures so that "wherever possible" people will be given the "chance to say goodbye" to loved ones dying with coronavirus.

The Health Secretary said "wanting to be with someone you love at the end of their life is one of the deepest human instincts", and said he wept at reports of 13-year-old Ismail dying without a parent at his bedside.

(Image: Getty Images)

"I'm pleased to say that working with Public Health England, the care sector and many others, we are introducing new procedures so we can limit the risk of infection while wherever possible giving people's closest loved ones the chance to say goodbye."

Mr Hancock also said the Government was making "crystal clear" that it is unacceptable for advanced care plans - including do not resuscitate orders - to be applied in a blanket fashion to any group of people.

"This must always be a personalised process, as it always has been," he said.

Liz Kendall, Shadow Minister for Social Care, said: “For millions of elderly and disabled people and their families, actions will speak louder than words. We need a clear and detailed plan about how – and by when – the Government is going to test more than 1.2 million frontline social care workers, up from only 505 who have been tested so far. This must include home care staff and Personal Assistants employed through direct payments, as well as those working in care homes.

“It is essential that people who are discharged from hospital into care homes are now going to be tested, but the Government must spell out how and where those who are tested positive will be effectively isolated, and where the resources for this will come from.

“More still needs to be done to ensure enough PPE regularly gets to frontline staff, who are desperate not to infect the elderly and disabled people they care for, or their own families. There are too many reports across the country that this vital protective equipment still isn’t getting through.”