Department of Health to fund remaining £420m of scheme for people with highest needs
Councils to foot £250m free personal care bill
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Local authorities will have to contribute £250 million a year towards new proposals for free personal care for people with the greatest needs.
The announcement was made in this week’s Queen’s Speech. The Department of Health confirmed that it would fund the remaining £420 million of a £670 million promise of free personal care for 280,000 people with the highest care needs, such as those with dementia. It also said it would ensure people within that group who currently get free care do not have to pay for it in the future.
The Personal Care at Home bill will also propose £130 million of funding to enable 130,000 people to have adaptations or technology installed in their homes.
Andrew Cozens, group lead on adult social care at the Local Government Association, said it was unclear how councils would find the £250 million since they were already expected to make 3 and 4 per cent efficiency cuts this year and next.
He added: ‘There is uncertainty because nobody has figures on how many eligible people are paying for their care now.’ He added that the costs of introducing free personal care in Scotland had been far higher than estimated.
Stephen Burke, chief executive of charity Counsel & Care, said: ‘Care must be taken to avoid creating negative trade-offs for other older people still with considerable needs trying to access care at home.’
The Queen’s Speech also proposed a mandatory assessment of parenting needs whenever a 10 to 15-year-old was being considered for an anti-social behaviour order. Parenting orders should also be imposed when a young person breached an ASBO, the Crime and Security bill will say.
Anti-social behaviour experts said the agencies that best tackled anti-social behaviour already tended to make use of parenting orders and assistance when imposing ASBOs on children. Stuart Pattison, anti-social behaviour manager at Bristol Council, said: ‘It sounds like it is just bolstering and formalising good practice.’
It will also propose new ‘go orders’ which allow police to ban a suspected perpetrator of domestic violence from their home for a fixed period even if they have not been charged with an offence.
Bill Pitt, director of consultancy ASB Action, said he thought the orders might encourage courts that had been reluctant to use ASBOs or injunctions in domestic violence cases to take action to protect victims.
Royal approval
Also announced in the Queen’s Speech:
- Energy bill Carbon capture and storage demonstration projects and a mandatory scheme for power companies to reduce the fuel bills of vulnerable people
- Flood and Water Management bill Local authorities made legally responsible for surface water flooding
- Child Poverty bill Eradicate child poverty by 2020. Councils and their partners have a duty to co-operate to reduce child poverty locally
- Constitutional Reform and Governance bill Quangos to be included in the accounts of their government department
