Can shake-up of social care survive the recession?

By Jennifer and Paul Roberts

www.caringforyourbusiness.co.uk

As the countdown begins for the launch of the Government’s long-awaited social care Green Paper, clues as to whether calls for a radical shake-up will be backed up by substantial new investment have started to emerge.

David Behan, the Department of Health’s Director General of Social Care, Local Government and Core Partnerships, has strongly indicated that, in the current recession, ‘affordability’ will be crucial in transforming social care funding.

He told the Community Care LIVE event that changes to promote choice and provide access to care to everyone in need had to be affordable to Government and families. ‘In a recession that’s an important dimension that we have to pay attention to,’ he said.

Was he preparing us for a less than ambitious Green Paper? Was Mr Behan hinting that we should not expect too much too quickly? Was he warning that there may not be enough money in the Government pot to bring about radical change?

We won’t know until the document is published in June 2009. But the omens are not good particularly with the Government in dire financial straits and with calls for a General Election growing ever louder.

Stephen Burke, chief executive of the Counsel and Care charity, agrees that, to date, there are few signs that the green paper will contain much in the way of radical proposals. He believes there may be lots of options, but little more.

In an excellent piece in The Guardian (The government has to show it cares too), Mr Burke says that a radically reforming and practical green paper could make a significant difference to older people and their families.

He warns in the newspaper that time is running out for sweeping changes in our care system as Britain’s ageing population is ‘experiencing a crisis in care that is set to get worse in the face of public spending cuts’.

Of course, there is no magic wand to wave to produce an instant solution. The future of social care presents a long-term challenge (perhaps, as Mr Burke and others suggest, on a par with climate change and global security).

The least we can all expect is that the green paper will provide:

·         A clear vision of how we will be cared for as we get older

·         How much it is likely to cost

·         Options on how we will pay for change

·         How it will affect the elderly, families and carers

We all know that the existing care system is underfunded and the problem will worsen as the retired population continues to soar. Mr Burke has suggested that introducing a care duty as a percentage of inheritance tax will help stop people losing their homes to pay for care.

He also rightly points out that we need better quality care, tailored to individual needs and better practical support for the growing army of unpaid family carers, without whom the social care system in Britain would undoubtedly collapse.

Will there be enough money to pay for real change? Or will, as many fear, the transformation of social care be a casualty of the recession, the bailing out of our banks and a change of government through a General Election?

Only Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Chancellor Alistair Darling, Care Services Minister Phil Hope, Mr Behan and leaders of the Conservative Party have the answer to that question.

Jennifer and Paul Roberts

www.caringforyourbusiness.co.uk

Roberts Consultants, specialists in developing care businesses