Reid promises more independence in social care
Health Secretary John Reid has said that the Government would give more independence and choice to people receiving social care.
Under plans outlined in the Government’s Green Paper, people requiring social care would be able to choose how to spend the money they receive from local authorities.
Dr Reid said that £14 billion would be available to allow 1.7 million people to buy services such as respite care, carers and new technology to help them live independently.
“Individual budgets will put a stop to the revolving door of care and care assistants because they will allow people to purchase the care they want,” Dr Reid said today.
“They will be able to choose their own carer or instead of receiving institutional care opt to go on a holiday that will benefit them, and their families, in other ways.
He said an ageing but healthier population required a different approach to social care, one that “should be about helping people maintain their independence and giving them real choice about the services they use”.
Key aspects of the green paper include strengthening arrangements for better co-operation between the NHS and the voluntary sector and engaging the whole of local government to make services accessible to those with the greatest need.
“People’s expectations of social care are low,” said Steven Ladyman, Community Minister at the Department of Health.
“In a society that values and promotes independence, people who use care services have often been ignored. This is simply the way services have developed over the years but it cannot continue.”
He said services would be driven by users rather than managers and would be “person-centred, proactive and seamless”.
Jo Williams, chief executive of Mencap, described today’s proposals as “very exciting” and praised the concern expressed for the most excluded people in society.
Paul Cann, director of policy at Help the Aged, added: “We must break out of the cycle of responding, too late and too expensively, to people’s needs and to do this the cut in low level services must be reversed.”
