Volunteers and guests at The Pinetrees Community Centre’s Thursday lunch club got a surprise visit by the shadow minister for social care this week.

Liz Kendall, the Labour MP for Leicester West and a member of Keir Starmer’s team spoke to those making and serving the meal of pork chops potatoes and apple crumble and those eating it – and she said it showed a model of how care could be reformed.

Ms Kendall said: “What I saw today was amazing to work by volunteers to provide delicious food, and really generous portions, and people coming to enjoy that and enjoy meeting each other and having a chat.

“But they also know that if they have a problem, maybe a money issue, or a mental health problem, there are people here they trust and who they can talk to and get help with those things.”

The shadow minister said the club, and many others like it, provide a model for how she would want to see the care system reformed across the country.

She said: “Our plan focuses on Home First. People want to be able to live at home independently as much as they can.

“Early care, sorting issues out early like the lunch club allows and helps, does that. People can get help early and it allows them to stay independent – if things are allowed to get to a crisis – a health crisis that puts someone in the hospital, or a money crisis, then that always costs much more time and taxpayers’ money.”

Ms Kendal said a better-performing care sector would also relieve p[ressiure on the NHS: “If there are people stuck in hospital beds because they can’t go home and there’s no care place for them, that impacts on the ability of the NHS.

“So care needs reform and examples like Pinetrees and the services like the lunch club here can be examples for national reform.

“It has to be local, we want to provide much more support for the voluntary sector and volunteers and we will get more people working in the care sector where there is a massive shortage of staff with better pay and working conditions.

“We can’t afford not to do this. So many women in the 50s and 60s, in particular, give up work to be carers for parents or family members, the economy can’t afford for us not to reform this.

“It’s great people are living longer, but they should be years people look forward to, years of joyful life, not something to be afraid of.”

Siobhan Vaughan, one of the team running the lunch club, said: “Anyone can come along, you don’t have to book and it’s £5.50 for a main course, a dessert and a drink. We do it because it’s good to see people coming out and meeting other people and building a community.

“It’s good to see people coming to see what we do and finding out how it works.”