Reform of Social Care

Julian Sturdy Excerpts

Monday 4th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

Many people would therefore be wrong in that respect, because we are clear about taking this report forward as the basis for engagement in the autumn, publishing a response and carrying out other related work on palliative care in the spring, publishing a White Paper and a progress report on funding reform and legislating at the first available opportunity thereafter.

[Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)]

Through the broad principles of the Dilnot report and the work already carried out by the Government, we at last have a framework that we can work towards to bring security, dignity and fairness back to elderly care, which I believe is really important. Will my right hon. Friend assure us, however, that we have a sensible and workable time frame within which to deliver?

[Mr Lansley]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. At the heart of this, we know that additional resources have to be brought to bear and that given the financial circumstances we face, we also know that this will have to be a partnership between taxpayers, families and individuals—it cannot simply be handing costs over to the state. Although Andrew Dilnot makes no specific recommendations about how to pay for his proposals, he is very clear that even if it were to be through a tax mechanism, he believes it should come from an existing tax and should bear particularly on the same groups of older people rather than be a further intergenerational transfer from working age adults. What that immediately points to is the necessity of engaging fully with some of the stakeholder groups such as Age UK and others and of engaging properly with the public so that before we embark on this major reform, they can feel confident that they understand those trade-offs and precisely how these costs are to be met.