Breakthrough on care funding

EdInvestor

A good article from the FT.It seems this is a "relaunch" of the Direct Payments idea, which has not been successful because of obstruction by the care industry and shortage of information on how to spend the mo ney.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/548dcae8-a78a-11dc-a25a-0000779fd2ac.html

A fresh attempt was launched yesterday to encourage local authorities and the NHS to hand over more control over health and social care to the people who need it.The move, which for the first time also requires local authorities to organise information and advice on what care services are available locally to anyone who needs care - regardless of whether they are eligible for public funding - is being backed by £500m of central government grants over three years....
Personal budgets, or direct payments, have been around since 1997 and available to older disabled people, carers and young people for more than five years.The evidence is that they are very popular - and effective - for those who receive the cash and choose what to spend it on.But take-up has been decidedly low..
Reports from the social care inspectorate show councils and social care professionals have been reluctant to let go of the cash, have overwhelmed people with paperwork and bureaucracy, and have "patronising attitudes" to those who might take a direct payment.
This time around, however, the aim is to create transparent budgets for everyone receiving care, according to Anne Williams, president of the Association of Directors of Social Services. Individuals will then be able to choose along a spectrum of taking the money and organising the care themselves, through to taking control of part of the money or simply telling local authorities and the NHS what services they want purchased on their behalf.

seven-day-weekend

Still seems like a good idea to me, especially as you can still keep to the other system if you wish.

Farway

margaretclare wrote: »

What a patronising statement!

Could you please explain at what stage, after a lifetime of deciding what is best for myself and making my own choices, I shall cease to be capable of so deciding? And at what stage a social worker, who doesn't know me, my background or the life that I've led, much less knows my present thoughts, needs and wishes, can be deemed to know better than I know myself?

Margaret

To answer the question.
From my experience, when you do not know what day it is, or if you had breakfast or not, or the names of your children, or where your keys are, and suspect everyone of stealing your toilet rolls

Hope it never happens but no one has control of their brain & cannot stop it degenerating if that is what is going to happen

seven-day-weekend

Didn't realise it was means-tested.

So those of us over the threshold will just be left to rot if we can't manage our own affairs?

Biggles

margaretclare wrote: »

I don't think I would ever qualify for this, as it's means-tested. Therefore I'd always have to 'put together my own care package', whether I'm qualified to do so or not.

I everyone qualifies for care by social services, it's just that means-testing would determine how much your contribution would be.

Farway wrote: »

From my experience, when you do not know what day it is, or if you had breakfast or not, or the names of your children, or where your keys are, and suspect everyone of stealing your toilet rolls.

I didn't know you knew my mother!

Farway

margaretclare wrote: »

Hopefully I shall find my own way out of this mortal coil, because there are early stages of such a degeneration.

Margaret

If you mention this you will be classed as suicidal, and then sectioned or possibly placed in secure environment

You will assumed to be incapable of making informed decisions and thus to your horror social workers will make your decisions for you

Errata

Oh dear, this is really difficult.
Perhaps before we all get too excited it would be worth comparing how much extra cash central government will make available for this new scheme and compare it with today's announcement of how much cash the government will now make available for youth centres, play schemes, etc.
Silk purses - good and sufficient care, can't be made out of pig's ears - the funding available.

The direction of travel is to support people with dementia in their own homes through workers and telecare, which for many will be far more appropriate and humane than being warehoused in a care home.

I'd like to correct a misconception. People who say they feel like committing suicide are not automatically sectioned even if they are older people. Just as well, few people go through life without thinking at some point they'd like to stick their head in the gas oven.

EdInvestor

AFAIK people with dementia/Alzheimers make up the largest contingent of those receiving full time care (perhaps 70% IIRC) and the stress that caring for dementia patients causes for families is well documented. I don't think anyone would want people in this situation to be forced to take over control and management of care on a day to day basis if they didn't want to.

But what I don't understand is why people think that others who need a small amount of help, either all the time or periodically (eg Margaret who gets AA) need their care micromanaged by social services.

I do know that the nanny state is well-entrenched: for example it's taken three years of lobbying by the whole insurance industry, consumers and investors, plus the Treasury, to get the DWP to agree that people might be allowed to self invest their protected rights pensions. :rolleyes:

So I'm not surprised that this is now the second effort at transferring control of funds from the bureaucrats to the public.

To my mind one thing to aim at would be to increase the non means-tested AA, as that means the social workers aren't in the picture at all.

EdInvestor

Farway wrote: »

If you mention this you will be classed as suicidal, and then sectioned or possibly placed in secure environment.You will assumed to be incapable of making informed decisions and thus to your horror social workers will make your decisions for you

The upside is that all the costs of your care will be met by the NHS, which is not the case with non-sectioned dementia sufferers

EdInvestor

margaretclare wrote: »

So, why cannot an individual arrange 'care' for himself/herself?I used to live with elderly people in their own homes, they paid me directly, and AFAIK a social worker was never involved.

Still quite possible. I have a friend who is quite well off who is disabled with MS.He has a live-in carer that he pays himself, on much the same basis as an au pair/nanny.No social services involved, but then of course no public money either (other than AA, I imagine). She's happy because she gets a better salary by cutting out the middleman ( the care agency) and of course he pays less.. Plus she has better accommodation at his place than if she was renting (she's from E.Europe).

Who authorises AA? Are SS staff always involved or can a doctor do it?