Social care: pressure mounts for urgent and radical reform

The government should immediately invest an extra £8bn a year to tackle the “national scandal” of the underfunding of adult social care in England, concludes a report from an influential cross party group in the House of Lords.1

The Economic Affairs Committee, which includes two former chancellors, said that the government should then introduce free personal care for people with critical needs so that they get help with essential daily activities such as washing, dressing, and cooking. This should be funded through general taxation, over a period of five years, said the report, Social Care Funding: Time to End a National Scandal. It estimated that a new basic entitlement to publicly funded personal care would cost £7bn if introduced in 2020-21. While this would cover basic activities of daily living, the government should retain a means test for the costs of accommodation in residential care and nursing homes, which would be capped.

The report said that adult social care in England was inadequately funded and that 1.4 million people aged 65 or over had unmet care needs …