Still no clarity about care for older people

Government proposals for reforming the social care system in England still leave questions unanswered for older people and their families.

Oliver Thomas, director of UK care homes for Bupa Care Services, says that while the White Paper published today contains welcome proposals, it does not provide a comprehensive solution to the problems of the social care system. 

Commenting on the proposals to provide free residential care after two years, Oliver said:

 This will be of little practical value for most people - our experience is that the average care home stay is now less than two years. 

He continued:

 Despite almost two years of consultation, there are no concrete proposals on what a future funding system would look like. As more than 70% of our UK care home residents are state-funded, we see the stress that they and their families, as well as local authorities and the NHS are under. There needs to be urgent all-party agreement on the way forward. 

While welcoming a national system of assessing needs, Oliver also warned that the process should not be used to cut costs and restrict the range of options, rather than supporting investment in quality care. 

Oliver said about the Personal Care at Home Bill:

 For many frail and vulnerable people, residential care is a necessity not a choice. From our experience of looking after over 18,000 frail people in the UK - many of whom are living with dementia - we know that providing a few hours of care a day in their own homes does not meet their needs.