Marie Curie responds to the Government's White Paper on the future of social care

The Social Care White Paper 'Caring for Our Future' is positive for terminally ill patients but fails to tackle the central issue of social care funding, which has clear implications for the care people receive in the last few days and weeks of life.

All too often in social care, end of life care is not given the attention it merits and urgently needs.  Marie Curie Cancer Care is therefore pleased to see that the Government’s White Paper ‘Caring for our Future’ includes a number of important proposals that will have a positive impact on terminally ill people, as well as their families and carers.

We are pleased to see that the Government supports in principle giving terminally ill people access to social care without charge. It is also good to see that the Government has promised to extend the Palliative Care Funding Review Pilots to include social care.

Too often people end up remaining in hospital unable to get home to spend their last days with loved ones. This is a result of the lengthy process of means testing, which is undertaken before care is put in place. That is why we are delighted that the Government has promised to extend intermediate care to help people get out of hospital quickly, and with the right support.

Imelda Redmond CBE, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Marie Curie Cancer Care, said:

"We are encouraged to see that the Government is beginning to focus on the social care needs of terminally ill people, as well as their families and loved ones. Extending intermediate care to the terminally ill and supporting the principle of free social care for those at the end of life are steps in the right direction to ensuring that people spend their final months and weeks being supported, comfortable and pain-free.

"However, we are disappointed that the Government has failed to grasp the significance of the issue regarding the wider funding of social care for millions of families. Failure to definitively deal with the future funding of social care has clear implications for people who are in the last days and months of life. It risks leaving too many people without the care they need and leaves families unsupported at a very difficult time."

Marie Curie Cancer Care provides nursing care at home and in our nine hospices. We also fund palliative care research.

-ENDS-