The secretary of state for health and social care Sajid Javid met care leaders representing care homes and home care services last Friday 13 May to address concerns about funding for social care and discuss the government’s adult social care reform plans, Homecare.co.uk has reported.

Care leaders attending included Vic Rayner chief executive of the National Care Forum, Martin Green chief executive of Care England, Jane Townson chief executive of the Homecare Association, Nadra Ahmed chair of the National Care Association, Sarah McClinton president of ADASS and Age UK’s charity director Caroline Abrahams.

Javid met with leaders across social care to discuss “ambitious adult social care reform plans” and working together to move forward with the changes set out in our White Paper ‘People at the Heart of Care’.

Backed by £5.4 billion from the new Health and Social Care Levy, Javid said that the reform plan included £3.6 billion to “make the charging system fairer and more generous and to support local authorities’ move towards paying a fair cost of care”. He added that he was proud that, from October 2023, people will no longer face unpredictable personal care costs.

He also addressed concerns around funding, but reassured the sector that the funding model has been through extensive peer review and the government is working hard to deliver a smooth national transition into the new system.

England’s five ‘trailblazer’ local authorities – Wolverhampton, Blackpool, Cheshire East, Newham and North Yorkshire – are putting the new adult social care charging reform system in place next January ahead of a national rollout in October next year.

The reforms include a lifetime cap of £86,000 on the amount people in England will need to spend on their personal care, alongside a more generous means test for local authority financial support. From October next year, no one starting to receive care will pay more than £86,000 over their lifetime, and no one with assets of less than £20,000 will have to make a contribution from their savings or housing assets – up from £14,250. Anyone with assets between £20,000 and £100,000 will be eligible for some means-tested support.