Press release

22 February 2008 - no embargo

Action on funding of long term care needed

Law Centre (NI) today hosted a keynote lecture by Niall Dickson, Chief Executive of the King’s Fund, on The Funding of Long Term Care at the Stormont Hotel, Belfast.  The lecture highlighted the need for a review of how Northern Ireland should pay for the long term care needs of an aging society.

‘Northern Ireland faces difficult choices about how to create a funding system for long term care that is fair and sustainable,’ said Niall Dickson. In Northern Ireland, charges are made for personal care in residential care homes, whereas in Scotland, a contribution is made towards personal care in residential care homes.  My organisation, along with our coalition partners have engaged in consultation on the views of carers and other interested stakeholders in Britain on the way ahead for funding long term care.’

‘How to pay for long-term care is a major anxiety for thousands of older people and their families in Northern Ireland’, said Les Allamby, Director of the Law Centre.  ‘There is a widely held belief that the present system is unjust because of the different level of entitlements to public support,’ he continued.  ‘The current system which requires a complex financial assessment to be undertaken needs re-examined.  There are no easy answers to how we pay for the long term care needs of this vulnerable group but the Assembly needs to carefully consider the growing demand for personal care to be provided free’ he commented. 

Please note that Law Centre (NI) is a voluntary organisation dedicated to assisting people on low incomes enforce their rights under social welfare law, and should not be confused with the Law Society, the professional association for solicitors.

Note to editors

1.   The event entitled ‘The Funding of Long Term Care’ is on Friday 22 February 2008 from 2.30pm-4.00pm at The Stormont Hotel, Upper Newtownards Road, Belfast

2.   The King's Fund is an independent charitable foundation working for better health, especially in London. Its goals are to help develop: informed policy, by undertaking original research and providing objective analysis; effective services, by fostering innovation and helping put ideas into action; and skilled people, by building understanding, capacity and leadership.
The King’s Fund has led the debate around long-term conditions, pioneered an understanding of the market and choice in health care, and commissioned a number of major enquiries, including Securing Good Care for Older People – Taking a Long Term View (2006), a review of social care funding led by Sir Derek Wanless, which led in 2007 to the government’s announcement of a Green Paper on the future funding of social care in England.

3.   Niall Dickson is Chairman of the Department of Health's Individual Budgets Reference Group, and is currently chairing a cross party Health Commission for the Local Government Association (LGA).

4.   Caring Choices, a collation of fifteen organisations from across the long-term care system, sought to gather the views of older people, carers and others with direct experience of the system on how care should best be funded in the future.  It was born out of widespread and growing concern that the current long-term care funding system is not fit for purpose.  Throughout 2007, it has engaged with more than 700 individuals at events across England and Scotland and through an interactive website.  Its final report provides insights into potential areas of consensus as well as some of the difficult choices and trade-offs that will need to be made in order to create a funding system that is fair, effective and sustainable.