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Building the national care service

This White Paper sets out the Government's proposals to build a comprehensive National Care Service for all adults in England with an eligible care need, free when they need it.

The National Care Service will be underpinned by six founding principles. These principles are enduring, and will be the foundation of the National Care Service in the future. It will:

• Be universal - supporting all adults with an eligible care need within a framework of national entitlements.
• Be free when people need it - based on need, rather than the ability to pay.
• Work in partnership - with all the different organisations and people who support individuals with care and support needs day-to-day.
• Ensure choice and control - valuing all, treating everyone with dignity, respecting an individual's human rights, personal to every individual's needs, and putting people in charge of their own lives.
• Support family, carers and community life - recognising the vital contribution that families, carers and communities make in enabling people to realise their potential.
• Be accessible - easy to understand, helping people make the right choices.

There are also six pillars that set out what the National Care Service will deliver:

• Prevention and wellbeing services to keep you independent.
• Nationally consistent eligibility criteria for social care enshrined in law.
• A joined-up assessment.
• Information and advice about care and support.
• Personalised care and support, through a personal budget.
• Fair funding, with a collective, shared responsibility for paying for care and support.

Funding care

The comprehensive National Care Service will provide high quality care, for all adults in England with an eligible care need, free when they need it.

In order for this to be affordable, it requires a care system in which everyone makes a fair care contribution. At the start of the next Parliament the Government will establish a commission to help to reach consensus on the fairest and most sustainable way that people should contribute to this system. It will make recommendations to Ministers which, if accepted, will be implemented alongside the introduction of the comprehensive National Care Service in the Parliament after next.

Under the comprehensive National Care Service, the Government expects that people will continue to pay for their accommodation costs in residential care if they are able to do so. However, it will introduce a universal deferred payment system, so that no one has to sell their home in their lifetime in order to pay for residential care.

The Government also intend to help people manage their finances effectively so that they can protect more of their assets, should they become liable for accommodation charges in residential care.

This White Paper rules out any changes to AA or DLA in the next Parliament to fund the second stage of reform. We will build the National Care Service around AA and DLA, and we will maintain these benefits as a flexible form of support.

The Government want to reduce the postcode lottery of the current system, and to ensure greater consistency around the extent to which AA or DLA (care component) is taken into account when determining the size of people's care packages.

What Disability Alliance says

See our press release below.

More information

• building the national care service - DH website
• national care service to join the welfare dots - Disability Alliance press release
• shaping the future of care together - link to Government Green Paper

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