Growing concern over provision of long-term care sparks campaign

Growing concern over provision of long-term care sparks campaign

You might not realise it but long-term care is one of the biggest concerns of ordinary people in the UK today. This was discovered by the BBC's Panorama earlier this year when it got the largest response it has ever had after its March broadcast on the state of old people's homes. On the strength of the feedback it decided to make a three-part series.

Stephen Burke, chief executive of charity Counsel and Care, which offers advice to older people, is one of those trying to turn the private concerns of millions of people into a campaign for reform. 'Half the people who will vote in the next General Election will be 60 or over,' he says 'We want to ensure this issue is up there when people vote.'

In fact, the next big opportunity for change is with us right now. Chancellor Gordon Brown and his Treasury team are preparing for the next three-year comprehensive spending review (CSR), which is due to be published in July 2007. That means they are doing the groundwork now. Brown has highlighted the issue of an ageing population as one of five main themes for the CSR.

There is a huge amount of consensus as to the way forward - and the one thing that is really lacking is the public pressure that will push the government into making the extra financial commitment that the vast majority of experts believe is necessary. So, where are we precisely?

We are operating a means-tested system of financial support which is dysfunctional, gets worse every year.....continued below

Advertisement starts

---

---

Advertisement ends

and adds to the stress families face rather than reducing it. The charity Elderly Accommodation Counsel reports that confusion and anger are the main responses people have when they discover how much they are expected to contribute to their care nowadays. It is usually only when you need care at home that you discover that your local authority will only provide it to the most serious cases and that you will have to pay typical sums of £13 an hour in most situations. Since councils are under pressure to keep council tax increases down, the provision of long-term care becomes meaner every year. While most services for children are ring-fenced in terms of funding, long-term care takes the brunt of financial cuts year after year.

The position of people going into homes is just as painful: elderly people can find themselves being sent long distances from their spouses and family, into homes that are unpleasant and for which they pay large sums. It costs about the same to keep someone in a home per annum - about £24,000 - as it does to send your child to Eton College for the year.

But there is an obvious solution. Sir Derek Wanless, former NatWest chief executive, published a report in March calling for reform of the system. Most experts agree with his conclusion that we move, over 20 years, to a 'partnership model' in which a minimum level of long-term care is guaranteed to all but in which we can make contributions, which will be matched by the government, to pay for a higher degree of care. When even the likes of accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers have given the thumbs up to this proposal (which will cost the taxpayer a bit more than we pay now) you know that it will probably work.