When Promises Break: What Today’s Budget Says About Our National Culture of Leadership

By: Shrien Dewani 

As the Chancellor delivered the Autumn Budget, I found myself struck, again, by the stark difference between the culture of politics and the culture of care.  

In social care, our work is grounded in relationships. Trust is not a concept; it is currency. It is the quiet thread that ties together people who live with us, the colleagues who care for them, and the communities that surround us. A single broken promise to a resident, a family, or a colleague would challenge the very fabric of our identity as a care provider. We would not excuse it; we would examine it, learn from it, and put it right. 

Yet in national politics, promises seems to be treated with a different moral logic altogether.  

Despite a manifesto commitment not to raise the main rates of National Insurance, Income Tax, or VAT, the Budget has once again leaned heavily on fiscal drag: thresholds that quietly freeze while inflation pulls more people into higher tax bands. The effect is simple, people pay more tax, but this time, without any politician having to say those words out loud. 

In my world, we would call that what it is: doing something by the back door that you said you wouldn’t do through the front.  

I struggle with why this is deemed acceptable at national level when it would never be tolerated in the sector, I’m privileged to be part of. If a care leader promised a resident or family that their fees would remain unchanged, only to find subtle ways of increasing them, our integrity would rightly be questioned. If we assured a colleague of support and then quietly withdrew it, our culture would be shaken.  

Why does the basic principle, say what you mean, and honour what you say, not apply to our country as a whole? 

And more importantly: how can the Chancellor continue to hold office having broken a promise made to the nation? In social care, leadership is not measured by clever strategies that avoid scrutiny. It is measured by the courage to confront reality honestly, and by the humility to stand by the commitments we make. 

The sector I work in has long been let down by government after government. Minister after minister has acknowledged the crisis, then passed the problem to the next administration. The absence of coherent national social care policy, especially fiscal policy, has contributed to decades of underfunding. Providers such as Evolve Care Group are left to balance rising costs, complex needs, and workforce pressures with a genuine desire to provide excellent, dignified, person-centred care. 

We do it because we believe in the people we serve. We do it because trust matters. 

It is hard not to ask: 

If care communities must uphold honesty to remain worthy of the people they serve, why is that standard not mirrored in the leadership of our country? 

As leaders in social care, we cannot rewrite the Budget. But we can model a different kind of leadership, one rooted in clarity, integrity, and moral courage. Perhaps, in time, our political culture will learn from the sector it so often overlooks.