Personalisation and the carers agenda

Social care is rising up the government’s political agenda. When care minister Ivan Lewis responded to this year’s hard-hitting State of Social Care report from the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) with a review of eligibility criteria, he was announcing a policy shift with implications far beyond social care.

The CSCI’s report said that the current care system is a postcode lottery, and that the rather ironically titled Fair Access to Care Services (FACS) “is used as a crude tool to limit demand and leading to overwhelmingly poor quality life experiences for those who are deemed ineligible”.