NCPC Responds to the Government’s Green Paper on Social Care

Following the six-month engagement process in 2008 the Government published a Green Paper on social care entitled ‘Shaping the Future of Care Together’ in July 2009 (you can view the document here).

The Green Paper sets out a vision of a new care and support system – a ‘National Care Service’ – which would sit alongside the NHS in England. Within this system, everyone who qualifies for care and support will get some portion paid for by the state and a single standardised assessment of peoples’ care and support needs would be introduced. A large part of the document concerns how the system should be funded.

The document was open to consultation until mid November. NCPC has submitted its response which was prepared using feedback from members of our policy groups and user involvement group.

In our response to the Green Paper on the future of social care NCPC calls for the Government to:

• Consider the particular social care needs of those approaching the end of life. No reference was made to the EoLC Strategy in the Green Paper, and very little detail was provided on what ‘quality care’ would look like for older people or those with life-limiting conditions. The numbers of people dying in England are predicted to rise by 17% over the next 20 years, which will increase both need and demand.
• Provide more detail on what personal social care budgets would look like and consider the barriers people at the end of life might face to getting the benefits of personalised care.
• Provide more detail on the workforce development required to successfully deliver personalised care. A commitment must be made to ensuring generalists in health and social care are properly trained to support and care for people at the end of life.
• Consider the needs of carers further, including detailing how the National Care Service would train both relatives and volunteers to care for those at the end of life, support carers with social needs and provide bereavement services.
• Provide more detail on how joined up services would be achieved and how a single national assessment of people’s social care needs would work in practice. It is unclear how the NCS would sit with the NHS and what steps would be taken to join up the workforces.
• Adopt a part-national part-local system of funding over fully nationalised. NCPC does not feel able to state a preference for one of the three funding mechanisms proposed (Partnership, Insurance or Comprehensive) on the basis of the information provided in the document.

You can download NCPC’s response here.  (347KB)

Should you have any questions regarding our response please contact Alice Fuller, Policy Support Officer, at a.fuller@ncpc.org.uk or on 020 7697 1520