In May 2014, Independent Age and the Strategic Society Centre hosted a conference for residential care providers, local authorities, civil servants, academic researchers and social care campaigners. We talked about issues in England’s residential care market and the potential impact of changes due for April 2016.
Key issues
- Budget cuts to local authorities who pay for some care home placements
- Not creating enough revenue to invest in new care facilities
- Levels of provider choice
- Changes under the Care Act will make it very clear that people who pay for their own care pay much more than the local authority.
- Changes under the Care Act could lead to a new problem of self-funders topping up their care, in order to stay in the same home, after the local authority takes responsibility for paying for their care.
- An increased interest in how much care costs and potential questioning of how self-funders pay so much more than a local authority for the same care home placement.