A year ago directors of adult social services were preoccupied with managing their budgets, delivering efficiency savings and coping with the demographic pressures of more frail older people and increasing numbers of adults with disabilities.
Those issues are still just as important. However, last summer the whole question of how social care was funded was thrown up in the air with the publication of the government's Green Paper Shaping the Future of Social Care Together. This was followed subsequently by the Personal Care at Home Bill and the White Paper in March 2010. The funding of adult social care was suddenly a major political issue.
Funding adult social care had always been an uneasy compromise between government grants, council tax and contributions from individuals who needed care but who had some means. I say `uneasy' because the legislation surrounding this is not defined in a single comprehensive Act but reflects various isolated Acts starting with the National Assistance Act 1948. And no one ever felt comfortable with the fact that people on relatively modest means could end up paying very large sums of money for their care in their final years.
In June 2010, three things appear to be certain (in so far as anything is certain these days). Firstly, there is widespread consensus among politicians, people working in social care and, most importantly, service users and carers that the current arrangements are not fit for purpose and need to change. Secondly, the last government's Personal Care at Home Act will not be implemented. And thirdly, that change will be difficult and complex.
The coalition Government has announced that there is to be a Commission to look into the funding of adult social care. We understand that it will report within a year. We have not yet seen its terms of reference. It will be interesting to see whether it comes up with different options beyond those set out in last year's Green Paper.
It will also be interesting to see what it has to say about the choice between voluntary and compulsory insurance schemes which has been a major political dividing line between the Conservative and Labour parties over the past year. In particular, it will be interesting to see how the current Government addresses the challenge that voluntary insurance schemes have not been successful to date.
ADASS believes that the current arrangements must change and that any change must be based on the principles of Putting People First which is leading to the transformation of adult social care. This means that the system must enable people to take control over their own lives and help them to live independently for as long as possible. It must also encourage rather than hinder prevention, early intervention and reablement (ensuring that if someone has a turn for the worse then they are helped to recover rather than suffer permanent decline).
Some of you reading this may think that this only concerns those working in adult social care. You would be wrong. Reforming the funding of adult social care will inevitably require radical changes to the funding of local government as a whole because adult social care is such a significant proportion of total local government spending.
It will also have a major impact on the National Health Service if we are going to get this right. Frail older people, or those with long term conditions such as multiple sclerosis do not distinguish between health and social care. Neither should practitioners nor policy makers.
There is huge potential for improving the lives of people and saving money if we use the available resources in an integrated way which focuses on the outcomes for people rather than the concerns of those providing or commissioning services.
John Jackson is joint chair of the Association of Directors of Social Services Resources Network
