The NHS could take over the responsibility of social care and get an extra £22billion in funding, it was claimed today.
The controversial move — which would take power away from councils in England — would see the health service’s budget skyrocket to £150bn.
David Cameron’s former policy chief Camilla Cavendish has been hired by Downing Street to help Boris Johnson ‘fix the crisis in social care’.
If the plans, reported by The Guardian, go ahead, councils will be stripped of their social care responsibilities and funding.
Those in favour of the controversial merger believe it would offer those in a need a more streamlined service and Ms Cavendish revealed that she knew of one man who had been visited by 102 carers.
It comes after the Prime Minister yesterday dismissed reports that the Government is planning to force all over-40s to pay more tax to fund their social care.
The PM’s official spokesman said it was ‘not true that we are considering this policy’.
The NHS could reportedly take over the responsibility of social care and get an extra £22billion in funding that the Government is currently giving to councils (stock image)
He is under pressure to come forward with a solution to the issue he first pledged to ‘fix once and for all’ more than a year ago in the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto.
The spokesman said the PM would ‘take the time’ to ensure the proposed overhaul is both ‘fair’ and ‘sustainable’ before setting out his proposals in public.
The Department of Health and Social Care has denied any plans to bring social care under the control of NHS England.
Some 1million elderly people have been deprived of the social care they would have been able to receive before 2010 because the service is beleaguered by a litany of problems.
The quality of care varies wildly from postcode to postcode and workforce shortages have led to a lack in services.
Local councils are expected to put up a fight against the merger because providing social care is a huge source of funding.
A health policy expert told The Guardian that if the NHS does take over social care, it would ‘decimate local government finances’.
Ms Cavendish and the social care reform minister at the DHSC, Helen Whately, are allegedly discussing how social care services would be controlled by regional NHS bodies called integrated care systems (ICSs).
But ICSs, which bring together different NHS care providers, have no legal standing so legislation would be necessary if the alleged new plans were brought in.
Boris Johnson has previously promised to ‘fix once and for all’ the country’s social care crisis
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has previously backed plans to see ICSs become legal entities.
Mr Johnson has said he wants to end the injustice in which thousands of older people are forced to sell their homes to cover the cost of their care because they are deemed too wealthy to qualify for council-funded care.
The PM was said to have asked officials to devise a scheme that shared out the costs which fall on those who need expensive care, which can exceed £1,400 a week, with the wider population.
Under one proposal, everyone over 40 could be asked to pay an additional levy, either through tax, national insurance or a private scheme in which they were compelled to insure themselves against the cost of care.
The Guardian said Health Secretary Matt Hancock was promoting the idea which is modelled on schemes in Japan and Germany but sources close to the Cabinet minister rejected the suggestion.
In Japan, people start paying an additional tax for social care at the age of 40.
In Germany people pay 1.5 per cent of their salary into a ring-fenced fund when they start work, with employers making matching contributions.
Mr Johnson is believed to be planning to take back significant control in the running of the NHS.
Those in favour of giving power to the NHS believe that it would let those in need receive more streamlined care.
Ms Cavendish has criticised a ‘shocking’ lack in continuity in social care and spoke of one man who was visited by 102 different carers.
The former Times and Sunday Times journalist has previously described social care as a ‘system at breaking point’.
She was made a life peer in 2016 and is an expert on health and social care and has even written a book where she conducted a review of healthcare assistants for the government in 2013.
Ms Cavendish believes personal care should be free in England, as it is in Scotland, and she supports over-40s funding social care.
Mr Johnson has set up a taskforce to advise him on how to deliver on his promises, such as hiring another 50,000 nurses and building 40 new hospitals.
Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the Nuffield NHS Trust, told The Guardian: ‘We would have several concerns about a radical shift of powers away from local authorities to put the sector under the control of larger NHS bodies.
‘These large areas [ICSs] might be a bit remote to really understand what’s going on in social care.
‘They also don’t really exist as institutions yet, so giving them huge new powers as they start up would be a dramatic and potentially disruptive shift for both the NHS and councils.’
An associate director the IPPR thinktank, Harry Quilter-Pinner, said that if the merger would ‘decimate local government finances’.
A DHSC spokesperson denied the claims.