A new way of funding social care in England was announced by the government this week. In future, individual budgets will be given directly to older people and people with disabilities so that they can buy their own personal care.

In what will be seen by many as a monumental shift away from top-down management from Whitehall, Alan Johnson, the secretary of state for health, said, “We want to give people more control over their services in order to increase their quality of life.”

He announced £520m (€720m; $1100m) of ringfenced money, half of which would come out of the health budget, to support councils to redesign their services …