By Lucy Phillips
7 January 2010
The government is likely to publish a social care white paper before the general election, paving the way for statutory reform in the next Parliament.
Health secretary Andy Burnham today told a committee of MPs that the reform of social care in the UK was ‘long overdue’. ‘We can’t flinch [from] it anymore. I want to create unstoppable momentum for a bill in the next Parliament where we reform fundamentally the social care in this country,’ he said to the Commons health select committee.
A green paper, Shaping the future of care together, was published in the summer for consultation. After receiving 24,000 electronic responses (the highest yet across government), Burnham said he intended to publish more detailed proposals for reform in a white paper ‘this side of the general election’.
Burnham confirmed the government’s intention for a national care system, with universal entitlement and assessments, to move away from the current ‘postcode lottery’.
He said he was ‘reprioritising’ central budgets to pay for the £420m-a-year service, which included cutting £60m from the Department of Health’s research projects and £50m from public health campaigning. Savings would also be made from a reduction in spending on management consultants. He emphasised that, contrary to reports in the press, funds would not be taken from research into cancer and other ‘big killers’.
‘These are not easy choices. There is a trade-off with all of these decisions. Some people like to think there is endless waste around the DoH but that is not the case, it’s a tight ship,’ he added.
Burnham said the Treasury had not yet confirmed future spending on social care but details would be included in the white paper – and the prime minister had hailed its reform ‘the top domestic priority’.
‘On what basis should we not give more support to people dealt the worst hand of cards life can offer.... Any option must be affordable and sustainable in the long term,’ he added.
