Helen Whately said she did not think social care funding should be centralised to mirror the NHS - arguing that local authorities know best what care people need
should not be taken out of the hands of cash-strapped councils and there is no quick fix for the struggling sector, a Government minister has said.
Earlier this week, a report by health think-tank The King’s Fund called for funding reforms due to rising costs faced by councils with already squeezed budgets.increasing spending on social care had been a “priority”, but pushed back against the suggestion that greater reform of the funding model was needed.
She added: “I have heard people make all sorts of arguments for ‘let’s do social care differently and combine social care with the NHS’. Actually I am a real supporter of the role local authorities play in social care.“And a lot of social care is very different from health care. It’s a lot to do with relationships and supporting people to live their lives independently, very different from what you experienced at a hospital.
The Government today announced that it was investing £20m of its Accelerating Reform Fund to expand community care such as the Shared Lives service. She met with a carer, Sarah, who hosts three residents – Jill, Sammy and Ruth – on a temporary basis to give them a “holiday” and time away from their usual homes.