News Release, 21 March 2005
Reform of social care is urgently needed, and the thinking laid out in today’s Green Paper is ambitious enough to deliver it, according to the Mental Health Foundation. But the charity says the next step is for the Government to ‘give some form and structure’ to the ‘admirable’ aims in the paper.
Speaking on the day of the publication of Independence, Wellbeing and Choice, the Foundation’s Chief Executive Dr Andrew McCulloch said:
“The Department of Health has carried out in-depth consultation in advance of the paper, and has clearly taken on board the best of the thinking in the social care sector. But applying this thinking will not be easy, and it is debatable whether it can be done with zero investment. Real, radical change requires a willingness to invest time and money in piloting and training, at the very least, and this cannot be done simply by diverting resources from a stretched health service.
There is also a tension running through the paper between the desire for strategic
commissioning and a focus on individual commissioning – finding a balance will be tough.”
The charity also warned that much more work is needed before the vision laid out in the paper can be turned into practical ways of working. Dr McCulloch said:
“The aims in the Green Paper now need to be prioritised, we need to know who is going to deliver what, and there is much work to be done to develop and test out some of the proposals. For example, while direct payments have been successful for many people, take-up has remained low for people with mental health problems, including those with dementia. Intensive work is needed to support people with mental health problems to use direct payments before their wider introduction.
Urgent steps also need to be taken to remove obstacles that prevent voluntary sector organisations from winning contracts to provide social care. And crucially, the Government needs to properly describe what it means by preventative services. Early intervention needs to be properly planned, and access to such services needs to be carefully considered. ‘The wider wellbeing agenda’ will not automatically encompass people with social care needs, and the thinking laid out in ‘Mental Health and Social Exclusion’ needs to be integrated into further plans for social care reform.”
The Foundation welcomed the emphasis on the leadership role played by local Government. Dr McCulloch said, “Strong commissioning is needed for real change and for too long social care commissioning has been inflexible and under-resourced. But social care and health care commissioning must be joined up to work effectively at a local level”.
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