Long term care funding commission calls for ‘bold’ solution

The man tasked with reforming long-term care funding has called for the sector’s help in reaching a “bold” solution that the government would be “deeply embarrassed” to reject.

Andrew Dilnot, chair of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, said, despite the coming public spending cuts, it was as good a time as ever to reform care funding for the long-term.

“We are early in the lifetime of a parliament and there’s a clear recognition that something must be done,” he told the National Children and Adult Services Conference yesterday. “The government would be deeply embarrassed if we came up with something good and then opposed it. The opposition would be embarrassed not to support it. So it’s up to us.”

He said increasing life expectancy meant spending by the state and individuals on care would have to increase in coming decades, while more informal care would also have to be provided.

Dilnot said the key issue facing the commission was how to find a way for individuals to pool risk to protect themselves against the need to fund care.

However, he denied this meant he was promoting a private insurance solution to the problem.

“While I have spoken about people having to pool risk I wouldn’t want that to mean that we need to be driven down a private insurance route. There’s no insurance scheme in the commission’s mind.”

Dilnot also said that people with lifelong disabilities would need to have their care funded by the state in future because they typically lacked assets or savings.

Full coverage of the National Children and Adult Services Conference

What do you think? Join the debate on CareSpace

Keep up to date with the latest developments in social care. Sign up to our daily and weekly emails