// BLOG
Charities call on Government to act on older care funding
December 30, 2011
Today some 60 national charities and social care provider agencies have published a letter in the Daily Telegraph calling on the Government to implement the Dilnot recommendations and call for all party talks on the future of the funding of longer term older care – however it looks unlikely that Government will respond for these urgent calls given the wider pressures facing the economy at the present time.
The Government response on the long term funding of care as proposed by Andrew Dilnot could not be occurring at a more critical time. The warning signals are already there that the Treasury Department will not loosen the purse strings to release the required £1.7 billion pounds per year to deliver a fair and equitable system for all us in our old age. Dilnot’s central argument that everyone should be liable for the first £35k on long term care is a good one thereby releasing middle England what became to be called the middle class tax with peoples capital assets being taken down to the last £21k.
Royal Commissions have come and gone as have reports such as the Wanless Report from the Kings Fund skillfully highlighting the time bomb of old age to come. 2012 provides stark evidence of our ageing population. On average around 150,000 people each year reach the land mark age of 65 well in 2012 750,000 do! The often quoted baby boomers have reached retirement age – luckily for the Government this is also the generation who never had it so good with a level of affluence, life long job security, and crucially a home owning middle class. This will ease some of the burden through private funding for care but the tidal wave of social care demand is now upon us in the week local authorities are being criticised for increasing their costs for care. A bumpy ride awaits.
Government pledge to outsource one million public sector workers remains priority
November 19, 2011
The Coalition Government’s pledge within their joint manifesto to outsource over one million public sector workers remains a key priority for the public sector. The commitment to allow public sector workers to own or run their own companies outside of public sector control remains a key objective of Government. The model of a Mutual similar to a John Lewis style approach remains the most attractive, as do alternative models such as Local Authority Trading Companies or Social Enterprises.
The primary sticking point for Council’s remains procurement processes which makes the LATC model particularly attractive in both driving through much needed efficiencies as well as enabling former public sector services to operate as a private company in the wider market. Understanding of the ‘Teckal Exemption’ is key for Councils which enables such externalisations to occur without going to the market as well as the drafting of the business case to prove value for money as the statutory instrument to validate such a transfer.
CHS have now worked successfully with over 12 Councils in scoping and enabling Councils to go down this road. As such we are happy to offer consultancy advice so please contact us .
NCASC Conference – 19th – 21st October London Docklands
October 6, 2011
Both Mike Walsh and Russell Thompson Directors of CHS will be in attendance at this year’s National Children’s and Adult’s Social Care Conference at the Excel Centre in London Docklands. Mike and Russell will be happy to meet and discuss externalisation models including the LATC, Mutual, and Social Enterprise models based on their recent work in Aberdeen, Wokingham, and Southampton.
Contact us at info@careandhealthsolutions.co.uk if a meeting is required.
New Delivery Models seminar date confirmed with Ernst & Young
August 29, 2011
Ernst & Young with Care and Health Solutions Limited will hold a further London Seminar on Thursday 10th November at 1 More Place. The Seminar will explore New Delivery Models for public services drawing on our experience of creating Local Authority Trading Companies as well as highlighting the benefits of Mutuals and Social Enterprises. It remains a central Coalition Government priority to externalise more than 1 million public sector workers during the life of this parliament to give former public sector workers the chance to run their own businesses.
Both Ernst and Young and CHS have delivered transformation and new delivery models across several County Councils and Local Authorities. This is a further opportunity to hear about our experience and gain support and advice in creating new models of service delivery coupled to efficiency savings.
This seminar is aimed at Chief Executives and Senior Managers wishing to consider New Models of Delivery.
For Seminar details please contact Gayatri Persad at gpersad@uk.ey.com or mark@careandhealthsolutions.co.uk
Reaching 100 the warning for the welfare state
August 7, 2011
The Times Newspaper this week has headlined on what we all know. Put simply a girl born today has a 1 in 3 chance of reaching three figures and a boy a 1 in 4 chance. So already the Welfare State is grappling with the current wave of baby boomers now hitting 65 with demand on health and social care services set to increase as the Coalition Government try and reduce and shrink public sector borrowing to 1.5% GDP by 2015/16. This is a huge political problem for all parties in the build up to the next election with the potential of some of us to depend for 60 of our 100 years on state support.
Radicalism and honesty from our politicians is called for in reviewing Pensions, the role of the private sector, and the increased responsibilities of the private individual in the coming decade. A healthy and honest wake up call is needed by all of us in recognising the levels of saving we all we need to do for our old age. Lets hope this becomes the leading political debate in the coming years before it is to late.