The Government has announced it will publish a green paper on care and support for older people by summer 2018. Commenting on the announcement, Janet Morrison, Chief Executive of Independent Age, the older people’s charity, said:
“The announcement of a timetable and consultative process for a Green Paper is a welcome first step towards a long-term solution on social care. The crisis in the sector is well-documented, with 1 in 3 nursing homes not meeting CQC standards, a £2.5 billion funding gap by 2020 and challenges in recruitment and retention of staff. The Green Paper must not dodge the hard choices that will need to be made. The real measure of today's announcement is whether the final plan the government implements is politically feasible and can get acted on in this Parliament. If not, the risk is that it will fail like many plans before it, and it will be older people and their families who have to face the consequences. The consultation must therefore lead to urgent reforms that are ambitious enough to deliver for a rapidly ageing population. Anything else will just be papering over a few cracks.”