Public Consultation on Social Care Funding and Recipients
The public will be consulted on who should receive social care and how it should be financed as part of a comprehensive review of the system.
Baroness Louise Casey, leading a commission on adult social care in England, described the current system to BBC Radio Four's Today programme as "impossible" to navigate and called for a "reckoning" regarding how people are cared for.
Baroness Casey emphasized the need for "challenging" conversations to determine the future functioning of social care in a country facing an aging population.
The government previously abandoned plans to introduce a cap on the lifetime amount individuals would pay for support at home or in care homes and instead commissioned a review focused on funding.
Focus on Older and Younger Generations
Discussions with the public will concentrate on older individuals who are "too often ignored or overlooked," as well as young people "who are already losing faith that they will get anything back from the state in return for paying in," Baroness Casey is expected to state at the Local Government Association's (LGA) annual conference on Tuesday.
Beginning this month, her team will start "testing the views of hundreds of thousands of members of the public to get under the skin of where the public are" concerning adult social care, including perspectives on funding and the role individuals should play in caring for family members.
Role of the NHS and Family Care
The public will also be asked about the role the NHS should have in social care going forward. Baroness Casey told the Today programme that the NHS has "withdrawn more and more from communities and into hospitals" in recent years.
"Suggestions that families alone should be expected to care for their aging and ill loved ones are 'simply not sustainable'," she added.
Possibility of a National Care Service
When questioned about the prospect of establishing a publicly funded "National Care Service" similar to one proposed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's likely successor Andy Burnham, Baroness Casey responded that "everything is on the table."
"I am of the view that we need a National Health and Care Service, the public don't see the difference and I don't," she said.
"Over time what has happened is the National Health Service has pulled more and more and more in what they think is medical and only medical and we have left basically everybody else to worry about what they think care is."
Background and Commission Work
Baroness Casey has previously described the care system as fragile and divided, with prolonged discussions over payment responsibilities creating anxiety and confusion for those requiring support.
Her independent commission began its work last summer and has been examining the challenges facing the care system in England. It is scheduled to produce a report this year outlining a plan to establish a National Care Service.
Phase two of the commission's work, which will address long-term social care funding, is not expected to report until 2028.
