£130m for telecare and home help

The government has pledged to invest £130m in initiatives such as telecare and home adaptations as part of its free personal care measures outlined in the Queen’s Speech.

The government said its Personal Care at Home Bill would help 130,000 people needing home care for the first time to regain their independence.

Technology and home adaptations would be offered where they could increase a person’s independence and reduce care needs and £130m would be invested in “re-ablement and prevention” to help people live at home longer.

The controversial Personal Care at Home Bill also pledges to guarantee free personal care for 280,000 elderly and disabled people with the greatest needs and was hailed as a “major breakthrough” by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The bill was presented by the government as the first step towards its ambition of creating a new National Care Service, but critics expressed concern that those reforms had been hijacked for political gains.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the King’s Fund, said the government deserved credit for putting social care funding near the top of the political agenda.

However he added: “The problem is these latest proposals seem to have been hastily put together and appear to cut across the options set out in the government’s own Green Paper.

"After all, the government has only just finished consulting us on the very different proposals set out in that document.”

Dickson said what was needed was a comprehensive solution which dealt with all those who needed long term care and support and backed the creation of a National Care Service.

The support for telecare was welcomed by the charity Counsel and Care and its chief executive Stephen Burke said one of the central planks of a National Care Service should be making telecare services free to all who need them.

He claimed every £1 invested in telecare saved up to £12.60 in traditional health and social care services. He also said local authorities such as Essex and North Yorkshire were already offering free telecare to some groups as part of their strategies to tackle the rapidly ageing population.

Burke said Counsel and Care welcomed the pledge for better care outlined in the bill but said it needed to be backed by a radical vision for a National Care Service and enough funding to meet current and future needs.

He added: “The commitment to investing further in helping older people leave hospital, regain independence, and return to their own home rather than moving into a care home before they need to is key to investing in prevention.

“Support for older people and their carers has become a crucial issue in the forthcoming election. We now need to end the postcode lottery in access to and quality of care and deliver a care and support system we are all proud of.”