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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| No quick fix for long term care | | Author(s) | Sam Lister |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, no 7743, 20 February 2010 |
| Pages | pp 396-397 |
| Source | www.bmj.com BMJ 2010;340:c814 |
| Keywords | Domiciliary services ; Services ; Charges ; Finance [care] ; Statutes ; Social policy. |
| Annotation | The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, wants there to be free personal care for those with "critical" needs. However, the proposed legislation, the Personal Care at Home Bill, is deeply flawed and is hopelessly under-costed. On a basic procedural level, it flies in the face of the consultation on the Green Paper, 'Shaping the future of care together'. The author comments that free personal care was introduced in Scotland in 2003/04 and the annual cost had doubled to £256m by 2007/08. The Government has estimated the annual cost for England at £670m, of which £420m has to come from existing Department of Health (DH) budgets. Local authorities will have to provide the remaining £250m from efficiency savings, which will mean increases in council tax and/or cuts to other frontline services. Debate on the Bill in the House of Lords has been more robust than in the Commons, with inquisition from former health ministers Lord Lipsey and Lord Warner. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-100319208 A |
| Classmark | N: I: QEJ: QC: 6P: TM2 * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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