Shaping the Future of Care Together
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009This week has already been a very busy one for the ILC-UK with the Government launching their new ageing strategy (Building a Society for all Ages) and their Green Paper on Social Care (Shaping the Future of Care Together).
The publication of the Green Paper on Social Care has been welcomed by the ILC-UK. Without action we will see a decline in the quality and consistency of care provided for some of the most vulnerable individuals in society.
The issue of care is too important to become a party political football and kicked into the long grass. There are some difficult decisions which need to be made, but we cannot shy away from them. Our expectations of care are undoubtedly going to increase over time and unless we can tackle the funding challenge, very few of us will get the care we want or need.
Last year, ILC-UK set out our own views on long term funding of care and made the case for a national care fund for long-term care. Do have a look again at our own thoughts on funding care in our reports, “A National Care Fund for Long-term Care” and “Funding Long Term Care – the Building Blocks of Reform”.
The Government’s Green Paper sets out a set of 6 things which everyone in England should be able to expect in terms of care. They say individuals should get:
*The right support to help you stay independent and well for as long as possible (prevention services);
*The right to have care and support needs assessed in the same way (wherever you are in England);
*All the services you need working together smoothly;
*A care and support system you can understand and find your way through;
*A service based on your own personal circumstances and need; and
*Your money spent wisely and everyone getting some help to meet the cost of care and support (fair funding).
The Government then set out five different funding options, two of which they immediately rule out:
*Pay for yourself – everybody is responsible for paying for their own basic care and support when they needed it. (The Government rule this option out on the grounds of fairness).
*Partnership - Everyone who qualified for care and support from the state would be entitled to have a set proportion of their basic care and support costs paid for by the state.
*Insurance – Everyone would be entitled to have a share of their care and support costs met as in the Partnership model. But this system would go further to help people cover the additional costs of their care and support through insurance.
*Comprehensive – Everyone over retirement age who had the resources to do so would be required to pay into a state insurance scheme.
*Tax funded – people would pay tax throughout their lives to cover care (the Government rule this option out because it places a heavy burden on people of working age).
The Green paper and associated documents are available at: http://careandsupport.direct.gov.uk/.
The ILC-UK would welcome your views on the proposals. Do you think the funding proposals are the right ones? And has Government got it right in terms of what we should expect from care?
David Sinclair