Funding anomalies

Press, 24 September 1987, Page 4

Funding anomalies

There is a need to develop a more integrated and coherent approach to the funding of residential services for the elderly, according to the briefing papers. Funding programmes being run by the department had been introduced on an ad hoc basis and there had been numerous anomalies between the different provisions. Similarly, the papers said, there was a need to promote greater equity between the different service sectors such as hos-

pital, residential, community and home-based, public, voluntary, private and informal. In terms of social development policy, it was important to recognise that the majority of elderly people lived in the community without regular calls on hospital or residential services. They relied largely on their own resources and on informal care given by family and friends, the papers said. The department’s focus on residential care had

meant that Insufficient support had been pro-, vided in the areas of' home-based support and specialist services for elderly people. This service had a narrow focus and met the need for domestic help only, the papers said. It ran in such a way as to put the elderly client in the position of an “employer” of the home helper, which had created some problems in terms of accessing the service for those unable to handle this role.