Reforming Care & Support: The Social Care White Paper

The most radical reform of the social care system in 64 years has been announced today.

Key elements of the Government’s plans include:

• People will be confident about the quality of care: ruling out crude “contracting by the minute” that turns care workers into clock watchers and consult on whether more should be done to prioritise continuity of care if a provider goes out of business.
• People will be treated with dignity and respect: more care workers will be trained and they will deliver high quality care. Dignity and respect will be at the heart of a new code of conduct and national minimum training standards will be set. 
• Everyone will know what they are entitled to: access to care will be consistent through a national threshold for basic care and people will not have their care interrupted if they move around the country.
• Everyone will have control over their care: people will have clear, practical information and advice on the care system and a way to report bad care. People who receive state support will be in charge of their budget and have control of their care. To support people to live independently for as long as possible, we will inject £200 million into the supported housing market over the next five years
• Carers will have new rights to public support: the draft Care and Support Bill will, for the first time ever, enshrine in law rights which place carers on the same footing as the people they care for.

Full article on the Department of Health

Take a look at the full paper: 'Caring for our Future: reforming care and support'
(Pages of most relevance to Carers are pages 12, 14-17, 29-35, 41-42, 45-46 and the concluding chapters)