Gordon Brown to put free social care for elderly at heart of Queen’s speech

Gordon Brown will make social care for the elderly the centrepiece of the Queen’s speech by introducing free care for some of the most needy pensioners in their own homes.

Ministers said the measures represented a staging post to help the most vulnerable before the introduction of a broader white paper on the national carers strategy, and then consensus-based legislation in the next parliament. Brown is determined to use the Queen’s speech to show his commitment to free domiciliary care for the most needy. He first raised the issue during his party conference speech in October and it highlights Labour’s intent on pursuing the growing grey vote.

Critics say the measures do not represent the full package on adult social care – which many say the government has failed to provide for more than a decade – but are instead seen as a stop gap before a comprehensive national care strategy.

No details have been released regarding the precise cost, or to whom it would apply, but Labour officials said it was expected to cost about £700m, representing £38 a week for each of the 350,000 beneficiaries. It is less than the more ambitious options outlined in 2007 for more expensive care for longer periods.

The free care would be introduced in October next year and paid for by the Department of Health and local authorities.

Doubts have been raised about the true cost of the scheme, and whether the introduction of a free scheme for some will complicate efforts to arrange a comprehensive scheme which will have to include an element of charging.

According to the NHS Information Centre statistics, 346,700 adults received council-arranged care in their own homes in 2007, costing £2.6bn. Those services are currently means tested, but only 12% – about £300m – of the gross cost is covered through user charges.

The shadow social care minister, Stephen O’Brien, recently challenged the health secretary, Andy Burnham, on the funding, saying: “Ministers are unable to answer our inquiry about which budgets the money will be taken from, and how the 350,000 individuals had been reached.”

But figures given to the government by the Personal Social Sciences Research Unit based at the London School of Economics suggested that by 2010 there would be 933,000 elderly people in the highest “critical needs” category for social care.

Nearly 300,000 would be cared for by their friends and family, leaving 647,000 who would need care either in their own home or in residential care homes. If care home residents stay constant at around 450,000, that would leave just under 200,000 adults requiring their critical needs to be met through domiciliary care. That represents a lower figure than presented by Brown at his party’s conference speech, but more free resources may need to be devoted per week.