The health and social care bill is intended to be the core of the Coalition Government’s plans to overhaul the social care system.
The bill will introduce statutory rights for carers to be able to ask for support to carry out their role. It also plans to make the eligibility system, which determines who is entitled to support, easier for carers by having a national eligibility threshold, avoiding ‘postcode lottery’.
Details of the cap on social care, recommended by the Dilnot Commission, are anticipated to be discussed. The cap is expected to be between £72,000 and £75,000.
The Queen’s Speech is also expected to contain plans for pensions, immigration, consumer rights, freedom of information and data protection, communications, police complaints, international aid, alcohol pricing, cigarette packaging, the high speed rail link, as well as the co-operatives bill, the dangerous dogs bill, the wild animals in circuses bill and the recall of MPs bill.
EDITOR: ehospice UK launches a series of feature articles on social care tomorrow, with one to be published every day for the next month. So check out www.ehospice.com/uk daily for thought-provoking features from a range of authors, beginning with a reaction to the Queen’s Speech and introduction to the current landscape for social care by Help the Hospices policy and advocacy manager Robert Melnitschuk.
Leave a Reply