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The Dilnot Review must be acted upon

By Guest
November 11, 2011 at 3:58 pm

Guest post from George McNamara, head of public policy at the British Red Cross.

The Dilnot Review is a once in a generation chance to tackle the social care crisis facing the country. It’s concerning to hear health secretary Andrew Lansley referring to its proposals as “regressive” and suggesting they may not be fully implemented, as he is reported to have done by Local Government Chronicle.

With the problem of how we will look after the growing elderly population becoming more not less important, it is crucial that Dilnot’s recommendations are both listened to and acted on.

However, much more thought needs to be given to the long term future of adult social care provision because without substantial investment in preventative and lower level services, any new funding model is bound to fail.

For example initiatives such as the British Red Cross’ home from hospital service intervene at moments of potential crisis when people would benefit from support to better link them in with their community, build the skills and confidence they need to prevent conditions from worsening, and allow them to live independently.

This means vulnerable people are less likely to need intensive and expensive support from local authorities, and are able to stay safe and well in their own homes for longer.

Money spent proactively on these services ultimately saves local commissioners hundreds of thousands of pounds, money that could well be spent on implementing the urgently needed Dilnot reforms.

The above post appeared this week as a letter in Local Government Chronicle.

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Tags: dilnot review, home from hospital

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 11th, 2011 at 3:58 pm and is filed under Health and social care, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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