Have your say on Department of Health's Draft Care and Support Bill - Turn2us

This week the Department of Health published its plans for reforming the social care system, which provides care and support services to millions of people with disabilities, older people and carers.

This includes a white paper setting out the vision; a progress report on funding reform; and a draft Care and Support Bill which you can comment on until 19 October

White paper

The white paper, Caring for our future: reforming care and support, sets out their vision for a reformed care and support system.

They state that the new system will:

focus on people’s wellbeing and support them to stay independent for as long as possible
introduce greater national consistency in access to care and support
provide better information to help people make choices about their care
give people more control over their care
improve support for carers
improve the quality of care and support
improve integration of different services.

Find out more about the Social Care White Paper (link opens in a new window)

Draft Care and Support Bill

The draft Care and Support Bill proposes a single, modern law for adult care and support that replaces existing outdated and complex legislation.

The Government is inviting comments on this proposed legislation until 19 October 2012.

Progress report on funding reform

The Caring for our future: progress report on funding reform report states that the Government agrees that the principles of the model produced by the Dilnot Commission (link opens in a new window) – financial protection through capped costs and an extended means test – would be the right basis for any new funding model.

The Government says its intention is to base a new funding model on the principles if a way to pay for it can be found. However, while it is the right thing to do, given the size of the structural deficit and the economic situation the country faces, the Government is unable to commit to introducing a new system at this stage. Funding reform needs to be considered alongside other priorities and the right place to do this is at the next Spending Review. Decisions will be taken then.

Response from social care and disability campaigners

Although most social care and disability campaigners recognise the need for and welcome reform of the social care system, many, including Disability Rights UK and Age UK, have expressed great disappointment that decisions around care funding have been delayed.

More information: Department of Health Caring for our future website (link opens in a new window)