Critics claim the Government cap on the cost of care will not solve funding challenge

The King’s Fund has claimed that the Government reforms alone will not solve the challenge of funding social care in their new report ‘Paying for social care: Beyond Dilnot.’

In the report it is argued that although the introductions of a cap on the cost individuals contribute to their care, there is still much more to be done in order to meet mounting financial pressures.

The King’s Trust is an independent charity which works to improve health and health care in England by shaping policy and practise through research and analysis.

The Government’s Care Bill introducing the cap will be presented to parliament for the first time today, which was created following recommendation from the Dilnot Commission in 2011 to cap the cost of social care at £72,000, which was originally planned to be £75,000.

Richard Humphries, assistant director of policy at The King’s Fund, said: “The Government’s reforms are an important milestone – but there is much more to be done. There needs to be an informed debate so that people understand how they benefit from the changes, and to address the difficult long-term choices that remain about how much we spend on care, and how to fund this.”

The report calls for a stronger focus on ensuring that more people are able to access the right level of support for their care.

This demand for a stronger emphasis on the problems surrounding eligibility comes after a continued fall in spending and the demand for services increasing due to demographic pressures has raised concerns.

Four key priority areas have been highlighted by the report, which build on the foundations of Dilnot in order to provide a new pathway for social care reform.

One area identified was the importance of ensuring that the 2015/16 spending review will move towards a single budget settlement for the NHS and adult social care, to closer align with local authority and clinical commissioning group budgets based around people’s individual needs.

It was claimed that health and well-being boards in the NHS have a crucial leadership role in ensuring that care reform is part of a wider transformation of local health and care services.

Mr Humphries continued: “We must also think boldly about removing the unhelpful fault lines which exist across health and social care spending. Instead of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ by raiding the NHS budget to bail out social care, we need a more ambitious shift towards single-budget settlements for NHS and social care.”

Within the report are concerns that further pressure will be placed on the NHS if people’s needs are left unmet, and the impact this will have on vulnerable people’s carers.

With the NHS already under considerable strain, the report argues that it is time to look beyond the Dilnot report and focus on how to secure enough resources to meet current and future needs.