19 March 2010

CARE/CARERS

Regional factsheets on carers (4th March 2010)
The Department of Health has commissioned the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities (CIRCLE) at Leeds University to produce a set of 9 regional factsheets on carers. These factsheets include data on the number and characteristics of carers in each region as well as information about carer health and well-being.
Factsheets

Funding care: how can each generation pay its fair share? (12th March 2010)
A two-track approach could see each generation paying its own costs of care in later life.

Our present system of paying for care needs replacing. The big sticking point is finding extra funding which both covers the growing needs of an ageing population and shares the cost fairly between generations. This viewpoint:
  • proposes a phased two-track approach, with an initial charge on inheritance being gradually replaced by funds built up through extra National Insurance paid by younger age cohorts.
  • suggests such a broad sharing of costs among different generations, linked to ability to pay, could be presented as a fair and equitable settlement.
Document

Funding Social Care: what service users say (9th March 2010)
Service users often aren't involved in discussions about social care funding, yet they will be most affected by any changes to the current failing system.

In 2009, 18 adult social care service users were brought together to explore proposals for funding social care in the future. This Viewpoint reports their views, including:
  • Service users feel that a false divide between social care and health care is perpetuated by conflicting funding arrangements.
  • Almost all service users consulted think general taxation is the best way to fund social care.
  • Service users reject any withdrawal of existing universal disability benefits, such as the Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance, to fund means and needs tested social care.
Document

CONFERENCE - Putting everyone first: making personalisation work for older people and mental health service users (17th March 2010)
This London conference from the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) on 10 June focuses on how to make personalisation work for older people and people that have mental health problems.

The key themes running through this event are:
  • Recent and new guidance on personalisation in both Older people and Mental health fields that has been developed by the NDTi for the Department of Health
  • How will commissioning deliver the personalisation agenda, at strategic and operational levels.
  • What co-production really means and how to make it happen
  • How support planning and person-centred approaches are key to making personal budgets real
Information

Securing good care for more people. Options for reform (16th March 2010)
Social care has never been higher on the political and policy agenda, and the need for fundamental reform has been universally recognised.

In 2006, The King’s Fund commissioned Sir Derek Wanless to review the funding of social care for older people. That review proposed a ‘partnership model’ in which costs were shared between the state and the individual. Since then, the momentum for change has gathered pace. Securing Good Care for More People updates the original review and concludes that a revised version of the ‘partnership model’ is the fairest way of funding social care in the future. This would see the state guaranteeing to pay 50 per cent of everyone’s care costs and matching every £2 contributed by individuals with a further £1.
Report

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