Care Group Welcomes “Positive Moves Forward” By Government

A social care group today welcomed “positive moves forward” on care but urged the Government to move faster than its current timetable.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Jeremy Hunt yesterday confirmed that there would be a cap on what people are expected to pay for their care and also promised to find a way to help local authorities fund care and a 10-year joint NHS and social care workforce strategy.
He also promised to tackle the unfairness of current care funding which at the moment sees people with dementia having to pay for all of their care whilst people with other conditions do not.
The Independent Care Group, which represents social care providers, today welcomed Mr Hunt’s announcements as “positive moves forward” but urged him to move more quickly.
“There is much in what the Secretary of State said that is to be welcomed,” said the Group’s Chair, Mike Padgham. “Mr Hunt has acknowledged that things aren’t working at the moment and set out some admirable key principles for reform in the future. In particular, I welcome integrating NHS and social care and a promise to value the workforce more. The devil will always be in the detail of course and we wait to see what level the cap is set at, what proposals there are for supporting local authorities and how the overall funding of social care is to be reformed.
“The key thing will be whether reforms are actually delivered. Social care has seen more than a dozen reports, commissions, reviews, White and Green papers in the last 15 years and we want to see things come to fruition rather than be kicked into the long grass again.
“Our overriding priority has to be getting more money into the sector as a matter of urgency and that is where yesterday’s announcements fell down. We are still chained to the Government’s timetable of a Green Paper this summer, which will at that point contain proposals which will then have to be consulted upon and so it will go on.
“We know there are more than 1.2m people currently living without the care they need, a number that is growing daily, and care homes and homecare agencies struggling to survive. I’m not sure social care can wait for the current Government timetable, we need action now.”