Make care reform top priority for 2012, sector leaders urge Government

HEADS of the UKs most powerful charities, campaign groups and trades unions have joined forces to urge the Government to make reforming the UK care system its top priority for 2012.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph published this week, the consortium say our elderly population is being 'robbed of dignity by failing social services' and that without reform, the consequences of caring for our growing elderly population are having a dire effect on society as a whole.

The Government has promised to release a White Paper on reforms to the social services care system by April, in response to the findings of the independent Dilnot Commission into Funding of Care and Support, published last summer.

In their letter the campaigners say:  "We urge the Government and the other party leaders to seize this opportunity for urgent, fundamental and lasting reform: delivering a social care system which can provide the well-funded and high-quality care and support we would all expect for ourselves and our families."

At Right at Home we agree that the current system is failing those most in need, as those care providers who fulfill block contracts for councils are not given the funding to provide satisfactory care.

That is why we will never take on block contracts for councils - instead we support those clients who qualify for Social Services support to take control of their own budgets and decide for themselves who delivers their care.

But while this takes them away from the risk of receiving inadequate care, the Government will not fund the full cost of taking on a different provider, so the client is forced to either 'top up' their budget out of their own pocket.

If they cannot afford to do so, they have no alternative but to accept care from the councils' generally overworked, underpaid block contract providers.

We believe the Government has a strong moral obligation to meet the FULL cost of caring for our elderly and vulnerable adults.

To read the campaigners' letter in full please follow this link: Daily Telegraph Letter