Social care Green Paper announced for Wales

Deputy Welsh Assembly Minister Gwenda Thomas has announced that a Green Paper will shortly be published proposing new ways of funding social care in Wales. Writing in Wales Online, Ms Thomas explains how the Green Paper will bring together ideas and opinions put forward in a national debate on paying for social care that she launched in 2008, as well as the findings of an Advisory Group that she set up to examine the issues in greater detail. The next stage of the consultation process will be launched on Monday 16th November with the publication of the Green Paper and the launch of a new website, www.payingforcareinwales.net, which will give further information and explain how to respond to the proposals put forward in the Paper. The Paper itself will have similar content to the English version published in July and will propose the same three options for funding social care in future: partnership, insurance and comprehensive. However, it is up to the Welsh Assembly to decide how social care is actually provided and funded in Wales. As with the English Green Paper, the Welsh version will not just focus on the needs of elderly people but will also consider how younger disabled people will be supported. A review of the benefits system and how it will fit within the redesigned social care system will also be included. The consultation period on the Green Paper’s proposals will run until 28th February 2010 and Ms Thomas is encouraging as many people as possible to get involved in the debate about how Wales’ social care system will be reshaped and funded.