Groups representing millions of elderly and disabled people tell health secretary they will not stand for 'empty promises'
Read the joint letter to the health secretary
Pressure is being piled upon the beleaguered health secretary, Andrew Lansley with a blunt warning from groups representing millions of elderly and disabled people that they will not stand for "empty promises" on reform of care funding.
In a joint letter to Lansley, the biggest ever alliance of charities, care home organisations and housing providers says the government must not duck its commitment to deliver reform when it publishes a social care white paper later this year. The warning comes amid reports that Downing Street fears the white paper could turn into a repetition of the government's NHS shake-up, the poor presentation of which is widely blamed on Lansley. Officials at No 10 are said to have stepped in to influence the policy process.
Ministers are believed to have some political cover as a consequence of all-party talks on care funding reform, which have begun behind the scenes in parallel with preparation of the white paper.
The letter to Lansley comes before a planned mass lobby of parliament on Tuesday by elderly and disabled people, organised by the Care and Support Alliance.
The alliance is pressing for implementation of the funding reforms for England proposed last year by a commission led by economist Andrew Dilnot.
Among the 46 organisations that have signed the letter are leading charities such as Age UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and Scope; the English Community Care Association and the National Care Forum, representing the main care home chains; and specialist housing providers such as Anchor Trust and Home Group.
Describing the Dilnot proposals as part of "a roadmap for a sustainable and clear social care system", the letter says: "Years of underfunding, combined with rising demand, have resulted in a social care system that is in crisis: an unfair and confusing postcode lottery … now facing additional cuts.
"This is a challenge which successive governments have failed to overcome – but we cannot wait any longer."
Dilnot has called for a cap on individual liability for care costs, to be set at perhaps £35,000, to stop people facing catastrophic bills and having to use almost all their savings and the value of their homes. But introducing his plan in full would cost an initial £1.7bn a year and rising. Amid clear signs of divisions in Whitehall, ministers have already decoupled the funding question from legal reforms and other issues that will be tackled in the white paper — not now expected before June – and have announced that a "progress report" on the all-party talks and wider thinking will be published alongside it.
The letter warns that decisive action is expected on "both fronts" and that the white paper will fail without a funding solution. "As they meet you and other MPs on Tuesday, to ask you to seize this opportunity to act," it tells Lansley, "older and disabled people and their families want to know that they are not going to be let down again. Without decisions on funding, all they will hear are empty promises."
Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the MS Society and chair of the alliance, said the spring was "crunch time" for Lansley to address the crisis that was engulfing the social care system.
"The health secretary faces the opportunity of a lifetime to ensure that this government's pledges are not just empty promises, and to make his mark on a social care system that will deliver for the next 20 years," Gillespie said.
In a statement, Paul Burstow, care services minister, agreed the care system was in "urgent need" of reform to create a more sustainable system that provided more choice and control to individuals and their carers. "We have to get this right," Burstow said. "That is why we have been engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, people who use services and carers on the priorities for social care reform.
"We will publish our white paper on care and support and a progess report on funding reform in the spring."