Pledge to overhaul social care

Ministers today pledged to urgently overhaul Britain’s “unsustainable” social care system and tackle a growing problem which the Labour government did little to address during its time in office.

An independent commission is being set up to examine the funding of long-term care and will report within a year. Its job will be to devise a plan for a new system of paying for the personal care services which are needed because of Britain’s increasingly elderly population.

In a move which was widely welcomed by organisations representing older people, the coalition said that finding a new way of meeting the escalating costs of care was one of its main priorities.

“Urgent reform of the social care system is at the top of our agenda”, said Paul Burstow, the care service minister and Lib Dem MP. “The current system is unsustainable – it cannot go on as it is. Our first step is to establish an independent commission.

“The Commission on Long Term care will be tasked with delivering a sustainable settlement, which is a fair partnership between the state and the individual,” added Burstow. That remark suggests that taxpayers will have to pay at least some of the cost of whatever new system ultimately emerges, rather than the Government footing the entire bill. That is what previous studies, such as the 2005 one for the King’s Fund health think-tank by ex-government adviser Sir Derek Wanless, have recommended.

The charity Counsel & Care heralded the move as “a unique opportunity to co-ordinate sweeping reform of the care system and to propose ambitious changes that can last through future parliaments. Older people are desperate for a decision now on the future funding of care. Universal agreement has already been reached on the state of the current care system: it is unfair, underfunded and unsustainable,” said Stephen Burke, its chief executive, who warned that the situation would get worse due to increasing demands from senior citizens and pressure on budgets. Once agreement on a new funding model had been reached ministers should set out a clear timetable of when changes would be made, he added.

Michelle Mitchell, the charity director of Age UK, said: “The current care system is starved of funding, too few people receive services and the quality of care can be scandalous, so we urgently need to find new ways to improve quality and spreead the cost of care.” Professor Chris Ham, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said the commission “is a positive signal that social care reform will be among the coalition government’s priorities. It is now more than a decade since the Royal Commission established by the last government reported. The challenge for the new commission is to set out a comprehensive blueprint for reform that commands support across the political spectrum”. Legislation should be included in next year’s Queen’s Speech, Ham added.

Ministers also announced plans to better integrate health and social care, increase direct payments for carers and extend personal budgets to older people and the disabled.