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The launch by Government of a national debate on the way adult social care is funded in the future was welcomed by Hampshire County Council Leader Councillor Ken Thornber today. As ministers warned of a potential £6bn funding gap within 20 years unless the system changed, Councillor Thornber said it was a huge debate that was long overdue and something that he and his colleagues at the Local hGovernment Association had been pushing hard for some time.
special inquiry Hampshire County Council is a step ahead and has already set up a special inquiry to help shape future services for people in need of support and care that will meet the challenges of demographic changes and resource constraints. The Commission is one of the biggest listening events ever held by the Council and Hampshire is the first County Council to hold one. Local services users, carers and national experts are being invited to give evidence, to talk about their problems and how things might be improved in the future. The commissioners are gathering ideas and comments about the ‘personalisation' of adult care, how care can be funded and how it will change the relationship between the state and service users.
personalisation Councillor Thornber said Government was looking for a culture change, for the introduction of personal budgets for social care clients so that it no longer provides care to but with . "It will be very much more personal. Whereas in the past we had a limited range of packages of care that people were fitted into, personalisation means considering a person as an individual with needs, and a circle of family, friends and other support mechanisms and so it will be about more choice, more dignity, and far more independence," he said. Councillor Thornber has appeared in national news bulletins in the last couple of years to highlight the problems caused when Government funding doesn't keep pace with the needs of an ageing population and older people's increasingly complex needs. Nationally, adult social care services are under exceptional pressure - and in Hampshire in the next five years the population aged over 85 is expected to increase by 20 per cent compared with an overall population increase of 3 per cent. Likewise over the 20 year period from 2001, the population of adults over 60 with learning disabilities is expected to increase by 36 per cent.
transformation Councillor Thornber said: "While Hampshire has been at the forefront of service transformation - for example we were the first to introduce direct payments and we're already modernising the way we provide care to place more emphasis on prevention, wellbeing, independence and choice - we don't have all the answers and so we are getting the experts to tell us through their evidence to the Commission. I'm hoping too that the outcomes of the commission in Hampshire will also influence and inform the anticipated green paper on the future adult care and ensure Hampshire's voices are heard." More information about the Commission can be found at http://www3.hants.gov.uk/adult-services/aboutas/consultation-involvement/commission-personalisation.htm |
