Govt sets up commission to tackle care funding

30 March 2010 1:38 pm | By Tracey Scott

Care Services minister Phil Hope has announced the Government is setting up a commission to advise ministers on the fairest and most sustainable way for people to receive free care under the National Care Service after it failed to reach a political consensus on funding.

A white paper published today says the commission, to be established at the start of the next parliament, will consider all the options for payment put forward by charities and the public as part of the Big Care Debate and the cross-party conference.

The paper does suggest that a compulsory levy will be introduced on everyone to fund care services as part of Government plans.

Hope says: “Everyone will pay into it in a fair way and in return everyone will then have peace of mind that their savings and homes will be protected from high care costs. The whole of society will benefit and the National Care Service will support individuals and families for generations to come.

“We must find a fair way of funding the National Care Service. The stakes are very high.  That’s why we must have a clear consensus. We are setting up a commission to tell us what would be a fair way for everyone to pay into this new system.”

The paper says the commission will take into consideration people’s ability to pay, intergenerational fairness, the potential impacts on people preparing for their retirement and whether people should save for their care over their whole lifetime or contribute at the end of their life.

If the commission’s recommendations to ministers are accepted, they will be implemented in the parliament after next.

This follows pressure from the Conservative Party who have recently campaigned against one option set out in last year’s green paper, a compulsory levy paid on death to fund care needs.

Government is also setting a National Care Service Leadership Group to help take its social care reform agenda forward.

The leadership group, made up of expert stakeholders, will advise Government on the implementation of the National Care Service, focussing on the systems and business processes that need to be put in place to make the service a reality.

The paper says that the National Care Service will be phased in three stages.

Health Secretary Burnham says phase one will see Government build on the best of the current system through reforms that are already underway and deliver the Personal Care at Home Bill.

As part of stage two, from 2014 Government will extend the coverage of free care so that people will receive free care if they need to stay in residential care for more than two years.

Also under second two, Government will introduce a National Care Service Bill to set the legal foundations of the care service. It will also push forward with the prevention agenda and continue the drive towards personal budgets so that by 2012 everyone who would benefit from a personal budget will have one.

Stage three will see the introduction of a National Care Service that is free for all adults with an eligible care need, funded by contributions.

Symponia joint-managing director Janet Davies questions the funding of the new commission and a potential levy.

She says: “Government has proposed a new commission. No doubt at the further expense of the taxpayer. Do we need a new commission? Well, we need something more than Andy Burnham and his current Government, neither or which appear to have the first clue about what to do or who do to it with.

“If they can see beyond the walls of Westminster and look into the combined faces of the care sector and ordinary financial experts then maybe, just maybe, they could actually put forward real suggestions about the future of adult social care.”

She adds: “A compulsory levy? Firstly, this is just a New Labour word for additional tax. Just how will it be compulsory? How will the long term sick, the unemployed and those on low-incomes find this, at what age should it paid and how?”

Association of British Insurers director of general insurance and health Nick Starling says the new commission needs to work with the insurance industry, and not overlook it.

He says: “With an ever greater strain on public finances and the scale of the funding challenge ahead, long-term social care needs new thinking and new solutions.  The Government’s own findings, said that the insurance sector has a key role to play in the provision of long-term care. UK insurers stand ready to play their part in tackling this vital issue for the future of the country.”  

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