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Full responsibility for funding free nursing care will not be transferred to the NHS until April 2003, the government announced this week, after coming under increasing pressure to defer the changes.

In July 2000, the government accepted the Royal Commission on Long Term Care's recommendation to remove the anomaly of people paying for nursing care in nursing homes that is provided free in other settings.

Consultation guidance on implementing free nursing care published in July 2001 proposed that the funding of local authority-funded residents' registered nursing care would be transferred to the NHS from April 2002.

But concerns raised by the Association of Directors of Social Services, the Local Government Association, and the NHS Confederation about the proposed timescale for implementing the changes and assessing all residents have forced the government to reconsider.

Health minister Jacqui Smith said: "The deferral in the transferral of funds from local authorities will allow more time for the NHS and councils to work together to ensure the process is carried out efficiently and to the benefit of older people receiving nursing care."

Smith stressed that the change was to enable NHS, social services and care home staff to establish effective working partnerships, and would not affect the government's commitment to make nursing care free for all from next month.

The deferral means that seven out of 10 people already receiving care from a registered nurse paid for by local councils, or through preserved rights to higher rates of income support, will receive free nursing between April 2002 and April 2003 funded by local authorities rather than by the NHS.

The estimated 35,000 self-funding nursing home residents in England will be assigned to an appropriate band of nursing, and health authorities will be allocated money based on the number of self-funders in their area.

People going into nursing homes after 1 October 2001 will be assessed using the single assessment process, which is intended to eliminate duplication and lack of compatibility between existing health and social care assessment procedures. Single assessment will then be implemented fully from April 2002 and will be central to the determination of individuals' registered nursing needs.

LGA chairperson Sir Jeremy Beecham welcomed the government's agreement that "an additional 12 months until full implementation" would enable robust arrangements to be put in place for joint working between councils and the NHS.

Association of Director of Social Services president Moira Gibb added: "This will allow the construction of financial mechanisms to ensure the smooth transition that will reassure the elderly people we provide care for."