With the publication of the Personal Care at Home Bill came the usual consultation process, which begs the question – Do the Government really have any intention of tackling social care funding?

This latest consultation will run to 23^rd February 2010.

Given the nature of the proposed bill and the large element of funding involved it would seem sensible to delay the response to the Green Paper consultation until the latest one is completed.

This would mean that is unlikely there will be any real proposals on the table until April 2010 at the earliest (after the Easter Recess) leaving barely 6 weeks until a General Election has to be held – therefore only 3 or 4 weeks before Parliament is dissolved. In other words we are not going to see any legislation passed by the current Government.

Way back in time, during the press briefing on the consultation process to feed in to the Green Paper consultation, some brave journalist (I can’t remember who) asked if the whole thing would end with actual policy or, given there was only 18 months to the election, was it a process to feed into the next Labour Manifesto.

It seems, despite Ministerial assurances otherwise, that the latter was correct.

So exactly how much social care money has been spent on developing the Labour Party social care manifesto rather than on legislation to help and protect the vulnerable? The army of civil servants, elaborate promotions and organised meetings have surely cost a fortune in times where money is tight and could be better spent on delivering social care rather than formulating ideas for a Government which is unlikely (given the current figures) to be returned to Government.

At that said though there is an upside to the whole endless consultation process.

Social Care is getting a higher public profile than usual and, perhaps, debate can be encouraged about other areas than financing care for older people.