23 February 2007
The funding system for adult social care is unsustainable and undesirable and should be replaced with an 'Every Older Person Matters' programme, central and local government leaders have said.
Speaking at Age Concern's annual conference on January 20, Paul Coen, chief executive of the Local Government Association, said that council rationing of care services was so severe that 'the only people now receiving support would to the lay person require NHS care, not social care support'.
He said that the current situation was 'unsatisfactory' and that changes were needed in both the short and long term.
The Comprehensive Spending Review was 'a huge worry', he added. The government had made it clear the CSR would be tight and that its priorities did not lie with adult social care.
'On top of that, they will be looking to councils to make very significant efficiency savings,' he said. 'From a council point of view… one of the things efficiency is about is cost and… your discretionary costs now are essentially and to a very substantial extent in adult and children's services... So, if we're looking for cost-based efficiencies, that's one of the places we've got to go. So [adult social care] faces a double-whammy.'
On the longer term, he said: 'We need to face up to the reality that the system is unsustainable and unable to meet the expectations of the people it's supposed to be providing support to.'
Part of a new system – which would entail a fairer funding balance between individuals, central and local government – should be underpinned by an agenda akin to the Every Child Matters framework in children's services, he said.
Care minister Ivan Lewis agreed, saying: 'The ECM philosophy is absolutely essential in child welfare' and 'we need to have a similar approach' for older people.
'The status quo is neither sustainable nor desirable. We have to have a new settlement which recognises not only the financial responsibilities of those stakeholders but also the behavioural responsibilities [of relatives].'
PFfeb2007
