An ‘Office for Care and Ageing Well’ that would monitor and report unmet care needs is one of host of recommendations in a new paper published by the Hallmark Foundation charity.
The Care 2020 - Creating a Britain where everyone can age well paper calls for an independent office that would identify future needs arising from changing demography, alongside measures promoting prevention and sustainability.
Local government should also be required to publish annual care sufficiency statements to demonstrate how they will meet unmet and future needs, it adds.
Other recommendations include a renewed drive to make direct payments work for older and disabled people using care, a focus on personal strengths and relationships, imaginative approaches to recruiting and developing care workers and future leaders, improvements in developing lifelong homes and supporting family carers, and a smooth transition from children’s care services to adult support.
The paper also sets outs six priorities for action focused on: choice and control; equal integration between health and social care; supporting unpaid carers; workforce investment; housing; and technology.
Care 2030 has been jointly written by journalist Jonathan Bunn and Stephen Burke, chief executive of the Hallmark Foundation.
“The government has raised expectations through its recent announcement of a national insurance rise to pay for tackling the health backlog following Covid-19 and ‘fixing social care’. This is an opportunity for everyone using and providing care to raise our game and push for better care,” said Burke.
“It’s also a challenge to leaders within and outside government to be bold and ambitious. The forthcoming spending review and white paper are the perfect springboards to deliver better care. Care 2030 sets out key building blocks to make it happen,” he added.
