An independent commission into adult social care, beginning in April and chaired by Baroness Louise Casey, will prepare the ground for a National Care Service, a key Labour manifesto pledge.
The review will not make long-term recommendations, which focus on creating a fair and affordable social care system, for at least three years. Any changes the government supports will take even longer to implement.
“Care providers are doing their utmost to deliver essential care to society’s most vulnerable, yet the challenges they face only keep increasing.
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive at The King’s Fund, has urged the Government to accelerate the timing of the second phase of the commission.
Pointing to well-known problems such as workforce pay and conditions, catastrophic costs, patchy care quality, and a “postcode lottery” of access, she said: “The issues and the potential solutions to this are clear and do not require years to consider.”
Abrahams added the fact funding for social care will not be addressed until the second phase of the commission is a “major concern, partly because today’s older people do not have time on their side but also because who knows what the state of the world, our politics or our economy will be by then”.
Successive governments have promised to fix social care but all have failed. It is now almost 15 years since Sir Andrew Dilnot recommended a cap on care costs to meet the challenges of an ageing society, but his reforms were never implemented.
What was The Dilnot Report?
In July 2011, The Dilnot Commission published a series of recommendations on how to deliver a fair, affordable and sustainable funding system for social care in England. These were:
A costs cap of £35,000 – Once someone has reached this limit in their personal contributions the state will pick up all ongoing care costs. People living in a care home will have their ongoing living costs capped at £7,000-£10,000 per year. A more generous means-testing threshold – This should be set at £100,000 for people in a care home, which is a large increase from the current threshold of £23,250. This meant that more people will be eligible for state support towards the cost of care. Those who have assets between £14,250 and £100,000 will pay a contribution towards their care, but costs will be met in part by the state. Reducing the postcode lottery – Dilnot also proposed that there should be a national threshold for care eligibility. This means that there will be one level of eligibility across all councils, which will remove the local variability that exists currently.He said: “But our ageing society, with costs of care set to double in the next 20 years, demands longer term action. The independent commission will work to build a national consensus around a new National Care Service able to meet the needs of older and disabled people into the 21st century.”
Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey said the commission was “long overdue”.
The £86m boost for this financial year is on top of the £86m announced at the Budget for the next financial year and brings the annual total to £711m. About 7,800 more elderly and disabled people could benefit, ministers estimate.
Wes Streeting said the plans ‘will help to modernise social care [and] get it working more closely with the NHS’ (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing/Getty)
Ministers argue upskilling carers will not only help boost morale and the retention of care workers, but will also lead to improved outcomes for patients.
CEO Dr Jane Townson said its research shows many councils and NHS bodies are already commissioning homecare services unethically at what it called unsustainable rates – some as low as £17 per hour. That cannot cover even basic staff costs, which average £20 per hour at the current minimum wage of £11.44 with statutory employment on-costs, she said.
“How can providers invest in training and digital systems when they’re being paid less than the cost of minimum wage? How can we integrate with NHS neighbourhood teams when most NHS bodies don’t even talk to social care providers? The government cannot fix social care by piling on more responsibilities while stripping away funding.
Care workers to carry out NHS health checks under plans to fix social care crisis
Read MoreThe disconnect between the NHS and social care has plagued hospitals with up to one in three beds filled at any one time with patients fit enough to be discharged but who have nowhere to go, due to a lack of community care.
Adam Brimelow, director of communications at NHS Providers, which represents trusts, said: “NHS trust leaders will hope that today’s announcement finally kickstarts the long overdue process of reform and sets out real action to address the many deep-rooted challenges this vital sector faces, including chronic under-funding and major staffing shortages.
A digital platform for medical information to be shared between the NHS and care staff will also be created, ministers announced.
Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said “a long-term solution for social care is absolutely critical” to build an NHS “that is fit for the future”.
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