In December 2007, we published “Putting People First”, a cross-sector concordat establishing the collaboration between central and local government, the sector’s professional leadership, providers and the regulator. It set out the shared aims and values which transform adult social care and people’s experience of local support and services. At that time we also announced the Social Care Reform Grant, a new, ringfenced grant of £520 million over the three years from 2008-09 to 2010-11. The expectation is that in the next three years councils will have made significant steps towards redesigning and reshaping their adult social care services, with the majority having most of the core components of a personalised system in place by 2011.
On 10 June we published the new carers strategy, “Carers at the heart of 21st century families and communities: a caring system on your side, a life of your own”. The strategy sets an ambitious vision focusing on providing greater services and support for carers over the next 10 years. Specifically, in the short term, to kick-start the process of improving support for carers, we are investing an additional £150 million in providing breaks for carers, up to £38 million in helping carers combine paid employment and caring and over £6 million in support for young carers. Furthermore, we are committed, in the longer term, to reviewing the structure of the benefits available to carers in the context of wider benefit reform and the fundamental review of the care and support system. In total, we are investing £255 million in the short-term commitments included in the strategy. This investment builds on the annual carers grant for local authorities to enable them to support carers (this stands at £224 million in 2008-09).
Finally, on 12 May 2008 the Government launched a process for extensive public engagement, which will lead to a Green Paper identifying key issues and options for reform of the core and support system to be published in early 2009.