For the last few months we have been hard at work on the detail of the social care funding reforms that ministers announced in February 2013. The work has included drafting the relevant Care Bill clauses and a large amount of stakeholder engagement.
Today we reach an important milestone with the launch of the consultation on reforming what and how people pay for their care and support.
The proposals, stemming from the recommendations of the independent Commission on Funding of Care and Support, aim to protect people’s savings and homes from unlimited care costs and allow them to financially plan properly.
As a reminder, the reforms commit the Government to delivering:
- a new cap of £72,000 on care costs from 2016, after which the state steps in to fund the costs of meeting eligible needs; additional financial assistance with care home costs for those of modest wealth with assets worth £118,000 or less (including their home)
- a cap lower than £72,000 for people of working age who develop care needs before retirement age
- free care and support for people who turn 18 with eligible needs
- a new scheme to prevent people having to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for residential care from 2015
This consultation will now set about gathering views on how these changes to the funding system should happen and be organised locally. Nationally, reforming how and what people pay for their care will mean some big changes to how councils operate now. We are very keen to hear what councils, care and support sector organisations (including care homes), individual carers and those needing care think about them.
There are many questions or issues to be clarified, chief among them:
- How we calculate how a person’s costs will count towards the cap?
- How will their needs be fairly assessed by local councils?
- How will people receive information about their progress towards the cap?
- How the system should work for working age adults?
- How the deferred payments scheme should work?
- What are the best ways to provide information and advice on the right care and support and how to fund it?
In some areas we need more evidence before we can make decisions on the right way forward. Where that is the case, the consultation paper is clear and specific in its call for evidence.
These are big questions to consider, so I’m really pleased to see this consultation encouraging views from a broad church of opinion. We need the widest level of engagement possible to help us assess the likely impact of these proposals in the round and to ensure we end up with the fairest approach possible.
There is much more at stake here than just the funding cap itself, crucial though that is in bringing security to people. The very existence of the cap will encourage more people to seek advice on how to manage and fund their care. This should be a catalyst, not just for better information provision, but for local authorities and services to work together to drive the health and care integration agenda. This means providing comprehensive, reliable advice on what people can do to postpone or prevent serious care needs; on the local services available to them and of ways of keeping healthy. Sound financial advice is an intrinsic element of this of course, but these other benefits should also spring from it.
This enhanced dialogue with local communities will allow councils to better assess needs in their area and focus support on the people who need it most, such as the elderly, those living with dementia and those with mobility or severe mental health issues. To this extent, there is a close connection between funding reforms and local authorities’ new duty to help shape their local care market.
Ultimately, the funding reforms – and this consultation on how to best implement them – are intended to reduce the stress and confusion which too often overwhelms those seeking care and support. Clear and fair assessment of people’s eligibility for care costs, support to help people keep their own homes, and renewed efforts to drive service integration across the health and care sectors will, I hope, deliver a funding system which allows all of us to plan ahead with confidence.
So please do join in the next stages of the process. Give us your views on the consultation questions and respond to the specific calls to evidence via the Department of Health website or the online consultation platform. The more we can all contribute to the design of the final system the more likely it is to serve the public well and stand the test of time.
1 comment
Comment by Damian chick posted on
I totally agree that service users should be engaged in gathering reviews of services but I would also argue that they should be the architects of the new services in the spirit of coproduction everyone that has access to the service should be able to design the service if your department should need help with this please do not hesitate to contact me Damian chick fellow of the Centre of welfare reform