Cost of white paper reforms revealed

The government will have to invest more than £200m a year by 2008-9 to meet proposals on social care and long-term conditions in the health and social care white paper.

The figure is revealed in a Department of Health impact assessment, which also says that costs will escalate further with the expected implementation of individual budgets and a common assessment framework for social care and health.

It says annual social care costs will be around £51m, including respite support for carers (£25m), training (£5m) and an information line (£2 to 3m) for carers, and care plans for people with both a long-term condition and a social care need (£18m).

The annual bill for services for people with long-term conditions is expected to be about £155m, while the common assessment framework will cost £160m to implement, with annual running costs of £20m.