Think Tank panel backs housing with care taskforce

Calls for a bigger role for Retirement Communities in social care

‘Care after COVID: Building a better adult social care system’

This Bright Blue event in partnership with ARCO involved the following speakers:
• The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Chair, Health Select Committee
• Phil Bayliss, CEO of Later Living, Legal & General Capital
• Michael Voges, Executive Director, Associated Retirement Community Operators (ARCO)
• Sir Muir Gray CBE, Former Chief Knowledge Officer, NHS

The wide-ranging discussion touched on various policy issues around funding for social care, legislative frameworks for care homes and retirement communities, and conditions for investment. But panellists also emphasised the need for a fundamental shift in how social care and old age are approached, away from an institutional and reactive approach towards a more community-based, preventative approach.

Key recommendations
• A ten-year plan for social care that addresses funding issues, workforce retention, and individual saving incentives.
• A fundamentally new approach to providing social care that focuses on prevention, activity and maintaining independence, with input from wide networks of different organisations.
• A Dilnot-style funding solution that clearly delineates the boundary between individual contributions to care and state support.
• Reforms to regulation and planning policy to enable more provision of innovative care models, and greater flexibility for individuals.
• A cross-government task force to identify key policy interventions and deliver a strategy for social care.

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