On 11th July 2012, the Department of Health finally published its White Paper on the future provision of care and support. Whilst much initial reaction and comment in the media focused on the implications for future care services for people in old age, the White Paper will obviously also have implications for people with learning disabilities.
Rescare will comment further in due course. In the interim, the official lauch page for the White Paper makes a good starting point. It begins:
“The Department has published the ‘Caring for our future: reforming care and support’ White Paper, which sets out the vision for a reformed care and support system. The new system will:
- focus on people’s wellbeing and support them to stay independent for as long as possible
- introduce greater national consistency in access to care and support
- provide better information to help people make choices about their care
- give people more control over their care
- improve support for carers
- improve the quality of care and support
- improve integration of different services”
Full details the DoH webpage – which in turn provides links to a dedicated Caring for our future site (although the amount of information comprised may seem daunting!).
As many commentators have noted, given the aspirations expressed in the White Paper and the UK’s current economic and fiscal difficulties, it will be interesting to see how quickly the objectives of the White Paper are implemented.