The UK Government has launched a 'Caring for our future: reforming care and support' white paper, which lays out plans for a reformed care and support system.
The new system will target people's wellbeing and support them to stay independent for as long as possible, introduce greater national consistency in access to care and support, and provide improved information to help people make choices about their care.
The system will also focus on improving support for carers, integration of different services and the quality of care and support.
UK health secretary Andrew Lansley said, "Our plans will bring the most comprehensive overhaul of social care since 1948 and will mean that people get the care and support that they need to be save and to live well so they don't reach a crisis point."
Cass Business School statistics professor Les Mayhew said the recommendations in the white paper contain a more practical and measured approach to the problem of reforming social care in England.
"We are also pleased that no decision is being made on the life time care cost cap. We propose a different system of graduated support for people in different wealth bands - a system that is simpler to implement and fairer to families, individuals and the tax payer," Mayhew added.
Cass Business School Centre for Health Enterprise associate director and senior visiting fellow Robert Warwick said the one thing that the Dilnot Commission stressed last year was that the current funding system was in urgent need of reform: it is hard to understand, often unfair and unsustainable.
"In choosing some recommendations and deferring others, particularly the cap on what people have to pay, the question is: have these fundamental problems been addressed? I think the answer to that is no, or at best partial," Warwick added.
"Only a fully integrated whole system approach that gives assurance to those who need care, those who need to plan for care and the financial sector who can provide appropriate products can deliver the benefits society needs."
Image: The Department of Health headquarters in Whitehall, London, England. Photo: Arpingstone.
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