Compelled by the crisis in social care across Somerset and cuts to services
that leave constituents out in the cold, new prospective parliamentary
candidate Kama McKenzie will be taking Labour’s proposed National Care
Service to the ballot box.
An experienced senior manager whose professional and voluntary work has
spanned youth services and young carers, mental health and substance misuse,
McKenzie has built her career on meeting the needs of her local communities.
Founder of a voluntary organisation and a social enterprise, Kama lives at the
sharp end of the austerity measures that have severed local services since 2010,
under the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition and current governments:
‘Every morning, I read referrals for children and young people who have no
choice but to provide care to disabled or unwell family members, and who miss
out on education, are isolated and are struggling with their own mental health as
a result.
‘Somerset County Council has vowed to keep pressure on Westminster, but
it’s not enough: we need a long-term solution – and Labour’s policy for a
National Care Service is just that.’
A self-confessed ‘politics nerd’, McKenzie says that she is fully prepared to
challenge career politicians whose lives are removed from those of the people
they represent:
‘Wells constituency is diverse: its people, the issues we face and the areas in
which we live. We know that diversity is not reflected at the ballot box.
‘I want to give local people the chance to vote for someone who knows we need
more affordable and social housing, more accessible health care, better public
transport, and huge improvements in social care and youth services – and who
is genuinely committed to voicing those needs in Parliament.’
Kama is confident that, with the partnership working and strategic approach that
have shaped her experience to date, she can deliver meaningful change for the
many, not the few.