Social Care for Older People
The Petition of Rotherham Pensioners’ Action Group,
Declares that the Petitioners are concerned about social care for older people.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to implement a fair and equitable system of care for the elderly, without imposing a financial burden on those requiring care.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by John Healey, Official Report, 26 October 2011; Vol. 534, c. 434.]
[P000969]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Health:
“The Coalition: our programme for government” set out the Government’s clear commitment to reforming the system of social care to provide much more control to individuals and their carers, and to ease the cost burden that they and their families face.
Since then the Government have taken a number of steps to improve social care provision in England and has committed to publishing a Care and Support White Paper in the spring.
In October 2010, the Government prioritised funding for adult social care in the spending review, allocating an additional £2 billion per annum by 2014-15 to support the delivery of social care.
The Government followed this by publishing their “Vision for Adult Social Care” in November 2010, which set a new agenda for adult social care in England. It focused on commitments to: break down barriers between health and social care funding to incentivise preventative action; extend the rollout of personal budgets to give people and their carers more control and purchasing power; and use direct payment to carers and better community-based provision to improve access to respite care.
The Government have also set out their position in relation to strategies published by the previous Government through the Carers’ Strategy refresh and a revised implementation plan for the previous Government’s Dementia Strategy.
More recently, the Government have received two independent reports that make recommendations on how to reform the system.
In May 2011, the Law Commission’s review into the legal framework for adult social care reported making a series of recommendations to Government for the wholesale reform of the law.
The Commission on Funding of Care and Support, set up by the Government when they came into power, reported in July 2011 with recommendations for changes to how the cost of care is shared between the individual and the state as a partnership. The Government have welcomed this report, which is an immensely valuable contribution to meeting the long-term challenge of an ageing population.
The Government are now engaging on a broad range of areas for social care reform that covers the recommendations from these two reports and more. This will inform a Care and Support White Paper and progress report on funding reform to be published in the spring.