Government white paper proposes an NHS-style care plan for everyone
Housing to play bigger role in care
Housing providers will play a much bigger role in delivering health and care services under government plans for a National Care Service, ministers have announced.
On Tuesday health secretary Andy Burnham launched a white paper, Building a National Care Service, which lays out plans for an NHS-style care system which would provide free residential care for everyone who needed it for longer than two years.
The service would be up and running from 2015, and would be funded from universal contributions, although the government shied away from detailing how the money would be collected. Instead, a National Care Commission will examine the fairest and most sustainable way to fund the £800 million cost of free residential care for around 55,000 to 65,000 people who will stay in homes for longer than two years.
Central to the plans will be preventive work enabling people to live independently for longer by adapting housing to meet the needs of older and disabled residents. Moves to build the NCS will emphasise the important role of housing in the delivery of health and care services. The Department of Health will work with the Homes and Communities Agency to ensure funding streams are efficiently deployed to build homes that can support an ageing society.
Local authorities and primary care trusts must continue to engage with local housing providers when drawing up local area agreements and joint strategic needs assessments.
The housing and social care sector welcomed the plans. David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said: ‘The proposals outlined today should mean preventative services offered to people in their home will also be a key part of the equation. This makes more sense both at a human level and on a purely financial basis.’
Stephen Burke, chief executive of Counsel and Care, said: ‘Everyone needing care should be assured that their needs will be put first. The white paper is a landmark that heralds better care for generations to come.’
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Readers' comments (2)
The ONLY One | 08/04/2010 2:33 pm
This is laughable - I remember as a young graduate being told about this long term problem that needed addressing (back in the 80's) with regards the link between housing and health. But never the twain shall meet. Good to see Mr Orr jumping on the media bandwagon - not bad for a housing focussed organisation, with a token 'supported housing' section to it!! How many more research papers need producing to show that quality suitable housing, with integrated support = long term health benefits for the residents = costs savings to the NHS/PCT/Soc Services et al. But as usual, things will trundle on like they have for the last 30 years before the problem snowballs. Why be pro-active when you can firefight all the time?
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Joe Halewood | 08/04/2010 3:35 pm
The executive summary is very interesting in how definitive it is as the following sentence states:-
"The National Care Service will provide the care and support that individuals and families need, when and where they need it."
So it WILL provide as and when needed!! In short this one little sentence says it will meet all needs and we all know that is nonsense.
Just getting housing, health, social services, probation et al around a table is an achievement in itself, let alone them agreeing on anything. Further to get them to agree who's budget it comes from is another matter all together.
If there is one thing this administration has proved its that "joined-up" thinking is an abstract concept that doesnt happen in reality. Thats not a fault of any political party, except it is a failing of living in Cloud Cuckoo Land and believing the spin and hype that all 'partners' will ever get around a table let alone agree.
This proposal does what others have done before, it ignores the empire-building egotists (those partners that never get around the table) and states this is a service user agenda with that ubiquitous and ill-used word 'choice' for service users. That is absolute bulls**t! Though the follow-on sentence from the one above would have one believe otherwise: -
"It will enable people to become more than passive recipients of services; it WILL give them choice and control over their care"
I have emphasised the definitive use of WILL here again to highlight the nonsense of this joined up / partnership / personalisation theory.
Anyone care (no pun intended) to remember the first big joined up social policy of this government - SP back in 1998 - with its first sentence being "SP WILL provide a secure financial and legal framework for vulnerable people"
It provided neither as the one in seven losing support in first three years and no secure financial footing and no legal footing whatsoever bear testimony. This was the first real 'joined up' social policy that also intended to get housing, social services, health, probation et al around a table and failed to even achieve that in most cases.
The role of housing? Oh thats a few building adaptations here and there at best - supported housing involvement (ie people based services) are noticeably absent in any detail in this 5-year to even get to the table plan
But hey yet again its a government initiative and the usual sycophants (aka the great and good of housing) some of which are above, simply nod and applaud...Now theres a surprise isnt it?
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