Brown promises free home personal care

EdInvestor

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8281168.stm

£400m to be transferred from NHS budget to enable people to get free care at home in England.

Farway

Whilst I agree in principle I suspect the hardest bit will be to get assessed as requiring care as the assessors, presumably Social Services, will know there is a budget to meet and just not allow all needs

Or maybe I am just cynical?

fredsnail

It seems to be more designed at keeping people at home for as long as possible.

But we all know that will cost much more than the amount they've allocated.

zzzLazyDaisy

Yeah right!

This is the same government that is planning to axe Attendance Allowance and 'other disability benefits'.

missile

What a brilliant scheme.:rolleyes: Let's (stop payments to family carers?,) waste money employing people to carry out more needs assessments and spend much more on paying strangers to do the job.

"the devil will be in the detail".

I note this will not be means tested and I am concerned those most able to pay could benefit more than those in most need who may find it difficult to understand the system and get the support they need.

margaretclare

Have you noticed another anomaly, well expressed in this Press Release from the Campaign for an English Parliament:

2000 LABOUR PARTY DELEGATES GOT TO THEIR FEET IN BRIGHTON IN THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX TO APPLAUD THE REPUDIATION BY GORDON BROWN OF THE VERY FUNDAMENTALS OF ENGLAND'S DEMOCRATIC TRADITION

Yesterday afternoon the delegates to the Labour Party Conference -Cabinet Ministers, MPs, Peers, Party officials and 2000 delegates from across the United Kingdom got up and clapped and shouted their approval as Gordon Brown, MP for Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath in Fifeshire in Scotland, announced measure after measure of new legislation for England, and only for England, in defiance of the very fundamentals of what the people of England founded their parliament for 800 years ago.

The CEP National Council has circulated its membership with a statement on this matter.

'Gordon Brown announced new legislation to place new teenage mothers in hostels rather than council houses; to provide free personal care for the very elderly in their homes, to limit pub opening hours, to control broken familes unable to control their children, to bring in additional controls on wild disruptive youngsters, to provide 250,000 free childcare places and to delay the introduction of ID cards. Very many people will indeed agree with these measures. That is not an issue that the CEP as such involves itself with. The CEP is concerned with democracy for England. When England gets its own parlament, its parliament will concern itself wholeheartedly with the welfare of the people of England.

'These measures concern matters which affect England only. The fundamental nature of English democracy as founded with the English Parliament in the 13th century and developed by the people of England over the past 800 years is that it is representative democracy. Law makers are accountable to the people who elect them. They are elected to be their representatives in their parliament. But Brown is not elected by any English voters. He is not accountable to any English voter for any of these specific measures. His action, and the conference applause for it, is a repudiation of this most fundamental aspect of the English democratic tradition.

Contact:
Michael Knowles
CEP Media Unit. Tel: 01260 271139 Email: [EMAIL="michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk"]michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk[/EMAIL]

margaretclare

.....and further, I'm very concerned about the £400 million to be withdrawn from the NHS to pay for this. I'm always hearing that the NHS needs every penny it has? Many if not most of us will have - have had - recourse to the NHS and would prefer that it remains well-funded.

Errata

I understand the funding for free personal care for the most needy of older people will be drawn from the advertising budgets of the NHS and local government.

krisskross

Errata wrote: »

I understand the funding for free personal care for the most needy of older people will be drawn from the advertising budgets of the NHS and local government.

I reckon a lot of the money will come from stopping Attendance Allowance.

EdInvestor

The cost of the specific proposal made by Brown is coming from the marketing/advertising and communications budget of the NHS.

Separately the Government has put forward proposals to provide free personal care in care homes in the future, which would be funded by cutting Attendance Allowance and levying a tax on people when they turn 65.These proposals are at a very early stage and have received the thumbs down from most concerned parties.

Rolandtheroadie

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/care/17655

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/03/27130345/0

Apparently we've had it from 2002. Cant think of anyone complaning about it impact on on other benefits though.