Social care system changes urged : King’s Fund

The imminent social care green paper will include insurance-based options as well as a minimum level of care support in its proposals, the King’s Fund has predicted.

And the thinktank warned that any successful new system would need to end the current “postcode lotteries” and be built to last for at least a generation.

The Department of Health is due to unveil its proposals for radically changing the way social care is funded later this month, in the face of widespread acknowledgement that the current system is unsustainable.

Richard Humphries, King’s Fund senior fellow in social care, said it was “incredibly unfortunate” that the pinnacle of the funding debate had been reached during a recession.

But he said issues over who contributed what and the extent to which council tax subsidised care in different areas could not wait to be resolved.

“We hope that there’ll also be something that links funding of social care to the delivery model and how we make best use of resources,” he said.

“The care and support debate so far has been about how fund the existing system, but the question has to be “how do you fund a redesigned model? Things like tele-care and prevention will become increasingly important in future.”

Both the King’s Fund and independent group the Resolution Foundation cited Lord Turner’s 2005 pensions report, which set standards of fairness and clarity, as a benchmark for the approach that should be taken to social care reform.