Fresh drive to lobby Parliament for a £10bn National Care Service

The National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has today attempted to reignite the debate for a tax-funded ‘National Care Service’, with a rally planned at the House of Commons at 1pm that has the support of trade union Unison, together with Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The NPC has estimated the costs of a National Care Service at £10bn, proposing a mixture of direct taxation and the reorganisation of current care expenditure to achieve.

Looking to restructure the care sector for an ageing demographic, the campaigners’ vision is for everyone to have access to free home and nursing care, better provision for moderate care needs, improved regulation and monitoring, together with the modernisation of care homes that have fallen behind modern standards.

Promoting the campaign, NPC general secretary Dot Gibson said: ‘Successive governments have ducked the issue about how we can improve the care of Britain’s most vulnerable pensioners. The endless stories in the media often reveal how grim life in a care home can be and how care in your own home is sometimes shockingly inadequate. Everyone agrees that the current system is bust, but no-on is willing to put forward the only real way of improving the situation. A National Care Service would end all these problems.’

Ms Gibson went on to say: ‘A National Care Service will mean seamless integration between hospital treatment and the community, and will benefit all of us, by giving us the confidence that our loved ones will be cared for properly when they need it.’

The campaign comes as the Government is poised to debate the proposals of the Dilnot Commission, with a White Paper expected before the summer. Although the Dilnot recommendations were warmly welcomed by much of the sector – proposing extensive reforms that include a cap of individual care costs, access to personal budgets, support for a stronger care insurance market, and national eligibility criteria to put an end to local authority differentiation – leading economist Andrew Dilnot did not find the formation of a National Care Service to be essential in achieving these goals.