News
Government reveals plans to boost social care funding
The government will limit lifetime care costs to £86,000 for individuals in England from October 2023 as part of its long-awaited plans to fix social care. Under the scheme revealed by Prime
Minister Boris Johnson, anyone who has assets of less than £20,000 will have their care costs fully covered by the state. Those with assets between £20,000 and
£100,000 will receive some means-tested state support. The government has published Building
Back Better: Our Plan for Health and Social Care - setting out the plans in further detail. To fund the plans, national insurance
contributions will rise by 1.25 per cent under a new Health & Social Care levy to be introduced in April 2022. The government will also raise the tax on
share dividends by 1.25 per cent. Johnson said the new levy would raise
almost £36 billion over three years and will be
spent across the whole of the UK. Johnson also confirmed government
plans to bring forward a white paper on social care reform that will include measures for closer integration with the NHS. Care England welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to sorting out social care. “We have been waiting for a very long
time for any concrete plans on the long term sustainability of adult social care reform and as such we welcome the Prime Minister’s announcement,” said chief executive Martin Green. “We want to go through the plans carefully
and it is our hope that social care will be rewarded and recognised rather than playing second fiddle to the NHS. It is essential that money reaches the frontline,” he added. Social Care Institute for Excellence chief
executive Kathryn Smith said: “The funding is desperately needed and must be ring-fenced to social care. It needs to be more integrated with health; and regularly adapting to innovation to reach more people and extend the workforce. “And it must put people who draw on
services at its heart so that they are central to the decisions made about them. We call that co-production. In turn that will attract more people to the social care workforce, so that people who draw on services have much better experiences and outcomes”.
High Court hearing on Covid care home deaths due this month
A legal challenge over government decisions and measures taken in relation to care homes during the early stages of the pandemic will be heard in October. The full hearing of the judicial review
brought by Dr. Cathy Gardner and Faye Harris, whose fathers died from Covid in April and May 2020 respectively, will take place at the High Court in London from 19 October and is expected to last four days. Gardner and Harris are suing the
Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England over the authorities’ handling of the pandemic. They argue that the treatment of care
homes up to and during the pandemic was unlawful, including guidelines allowing
Covid-19 patients to be discharged from hospitals into care homes untested. The judge in the case meanwhile has
refused requests by the duo to secure “essential documents evidencing the defendants’ decisions” and asked for further disclosure of 132 further pieces of evidence. That evidence includes WhatsApp
messages between ministers and Boris Johnson relating to the discharge of hospital patients into care homes and emails sent from a private account by the then health secretary Matt Hancock. Mrs Justice Eady said the evidence is
not necessary for judicial review of the government’s Covid care home policy.
October 2021 •
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
Gillian Keegan replaces Helen Whately as care minister
Tory MP for Chichester Gillian Keegan has replaced Helen Whately as care minister in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle. 53-year old Keegan was formerly
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills at the Department of Education. “I am honoured to have been asked by
Boris Johnson to join the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC),” Keegan tweeted upon her appointment. “There are significant challenges ahead and I am looking forward to working closely with Sajid Javid and the team to get stuck in,” she added. Keegan’s promotion to care minister
came as Whately was moved to a junior minister role as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. Whately was appointed care minister in February 2020. In a related development, Erewash
MP Maggie Throup has been appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at DHSC, replacing Jo Churchill. Throup, 64, was previously a Lords
Commissioner of the Treasury – an unpaid government whip position.
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