Care Direct axed in favour of ‘Third Age’

Care Direct, the social care, health, housing and benefits advice
service for older people set up in 2001, is to be disbanded.

Six pilot areas were chosen for the initiative in south west
England providing a gateway for information via telephone, website
and help desks.

The plan was for the service to be rolled out across England over
the following four years.

But the Department for Work and Pensions said this week that the
Care Direct brand would be “disappearing” as a single service.
However, it added that the pilots’ “principles and successes” would
be carried into “new single gateway contact centres”.

The new service – the Third Age Service – will be wider in scope
than Care Direct, although the details are not yet known.