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The Scottish Government's community care policy aims to improve the quality of life for adults who are in receipt of social and healthcare services. Policy is developed so that individual choice and control becomes a reality. In so doing, the Scottish Government works very closely with those who are responsible for shifting the balance of care so that more people are able to continue to live in their communities. Legislation, such as the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007, is implemented to help identify "adults at risk", to provide support to them when they need it, and to provide the means to protect them from harm.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/care/adult-care-and-support
Integrity Care is an expert provider of practical, personal and domestic care and support services to vulnerable people of all ages. We pride ourselves on offering friendly, personal care to all of our clients and maintaining a quality service at competitive rates.
Our home care services aim to promote independence by enabling people to live in their own homes for as long as possible.
Our team of reliable, conscientious staff have acquired many years of care experience and endeavour to provide a professional service at all times. All of our care workers undergo rigorous recruitment selection and statutory vetting procedures, including a comprehensive induction and mandatory training where they are assessed for competency prior to undertaking care work.
Whether you need temporary, convalescent or long-term assistance, Integrity Care can provide you with the same specialist care in your own home as you would receive in a residential unit. If you think that we can assist you, then please contact us or ask someone else to get in touch with us on your behalf. It is important that you supply us with as much relevant information as possible about you and your needs for help and support.
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Pressure is growing on the government to clarify its position over the so-called "death tax" after social care chiefs and charities backed the levy.
Ministers in England are considering introducing a compulsory fee, possibly up to £20,000, to pay for social care.
The plan has been attacked by the Tories, but the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) said it supported the idea.
The government said it would be making an announcement soon.
John Jackson, from ADASS, which represents social service chiefs working for councils, said extra funding was "much needed".
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 With our ageing population, the care funding gap will continue to grow without radical reform and proper funding  Stephen Burke, of Counsel and Care
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But he dismissed the idea of having a voluntary scheme - one of the other proposals being considered.
"The problem with any voluntary insurance is that people will not think they need it and so will not take it up.
"Without getting enough people signing up the idea stops being viable. If you have a compulsory scheme, you would ensure there is enough funding to run the service in the future."
His call for a levy was supported by Counsel and Care, a charity for elderly people.
Stephen Burke, chief executive of the charity, said: "With our ageing population, the care funding gap will continue to grow without radical reform and proper funding."
The compulsory levy has been dubbed a death tax by the Tories because while it is due on retirement the proposal allows for it to be taken from the estate of a person after death.
It was one of a number of options put forward in a green paper by Health Secretary Andy Burnham last summer to replace the means-tested system currently in place.
Election battleground
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative leader David Cameron clashed in the House of Commons on Wednesday over the plans and the issue of social care funding now looks like it will be a key battleground during the election campaign.
The Tories have already produced a controversial poster criticising the possibility of a compulsory charge, showing a gravestone with the words "R.I.P. OFF"
Councils say they are increasingly struggling to provide support in people's homes, while thousands of people have been forced to sell their family homes to pay for residential care.
The Conservatives have put forward a plan for an optional £8,000 fee so elderly people can avoid paying for residential care.
The party has been more vague about what it wants to do over the care people receive in their own home for washing, eating and dressing.
It said it is looking to draw up plans to support people through home modifications and technology that would leave them less reliant on social services.
In contrast, the government put forward three proposals in a green paper last summer covering both care homes and help in the home.
As well as the compulsory fee, it included a voluntary insurance scheme and a partnership model whereby the state provided a basic level of support which could be topped up by individuals.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said a decision would be made soon.
She added: "It is premature to start second-guessing the blueprint we will shortly set out."
Eighteen charities have demanded the Labour and Conservative parties stop using the issue of care reform to score political points.
This week it emerged that the three main parties, including the Lib Dems, had met privately over the issue.
But talks broke down and MPs verbally attacked each other in Parliament over their parties' respective plans.
The organisations said politicians had to find a "sustainable" solution to improve care for the elderly.
The Conservatives accused Labour of planning a £20,000 "death tax" to pay for social care, while Health Secretary And Burnham said a Conservative campaign featuring a gravestone was "grubby and desperate".
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SIGNATORIES
Carers UK
Counsel and Care
Joseph Rowntree Foundation
National Care Forum
English Community Care Association
Alzheimer's Society
Age Concern and Help the Aged
Resolution Foundation
WRVS
MS Society
Macmillan Cancer Support
Sue Ryder Care
Contact A Family
Crossroads Care
Princess Royal Trust for Carers
Grandparents Plus
Radar
Parkinson's Disease Society
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Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused the Tories of a U-turn, saying they had initially supported a plan to provide free personal care for the most vulnerable elderly people in England.
During prime minister's questions on Wednesday, Conservative leader David Cameron asked Mr Brown "where is the money coming from?" and whether he would rule out a compulsory inheritance levy to pay for it.
During the same session, Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said an attempt to build a consensus between the parties had been "undermined by this descent to a puerile level of point scoring".
On Friday, Lord Mandelson, the First Secretary of State said the Conservatives had driven "a wrecking ball" through the talks so that they could have a short-term political advantage.
Organisations including Age Concern, Help the Aged and Macmillan Cancer Support jointly wrote to the Times to denounce the squabble.
They said: "We welcome the political attention that social care is receiving. However, we are in danger of seeing this most important of debates become reduced to election soundbites and poster slogans."
In the letter, they said: "The vexed question of who pays is unquestionably difficult, and the solutions may be controversial - but the costs of failing to act are simply too great to allow the debate needed to be drowned out by party-political squabbling."
They called for a "serious debate" and said: It is premature to rule out future proposals to score a political point... social care reform needs to be an issue of consensus.
"We need a care settlement that delivers long-term solutions that will not be reversed by changes in government or in the economic climate."
Government advisor Dame Joan Bakewell - described as its "voice of older people" - said the row between the parties was "shameful".
"It's highly regrettable that political interests have stepped in where a really serious issue was being discussed by serious men with the interests of older people at heart," Dame Joan said.
"The fact that it has become a political circus is shameful."
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales is to use a homily to criticise what he sees as a lack of compassion in some parts of the NHS.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols will say that some hospitals see patients as no more than a set of medical problems.
He will say calls for assisted suicide and euthanasia reflect a society that does not know how to deal with death.
The archbishop's comments will be delivered at a special service of healing at Westminster Cathedral.
Prevailing culture
He will say the constitution of the NHS promises to respond with humanity to a patient's distress and anxiety as well as their pain.
But the archbishop will claim some hospitals fail to meet that commitment because of a prevailing culture which sees patients as no more than medical cases to be resolved.
He will say systems of care have been created which by treating patients in this way inflicts what amounts to hidden violence on them.
The archbishop will also say society is at a loss to know how to respond to death.
He will reject calls for assisted suicide, accusing its supporters of wrongly seeing death as simply a medical event.
Attempts to reach a deal on elderly care in England appear to have fallen even further apart amid angry exchanges on BBC
One's Politics Show.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham has called a cross-party conference on the issue after earlier talks broke down.
Lib Dem Norman Lamb backed the idea but Tory spokesman Andrew Lansley said he would only attend if Labour scrapped a £20,000 "death tax" plan.
Mr Burnham accused the Tories of making up "scare stories" about his proposals.
He said the compulsory levy on estates to pay for free personal care at home for the most elderly was just one of three options set out in a Green Paper and no decision had been reached.
'Negative campaign'
He accused the Conservatives of indulging on old-style "nasty" campaigning with a "scaremongering" poster, which says: "now Gordon wants £20,000 when you die".
He added: "This is not an issue for scare stories and negative campaigning. It involves vulnerable people and we need to remember that at all times in this debate."
Mr Burnham has said he would be holding a conference involving charities and local authorities this week, to which the main political parties would be invited.
Mr Lansley was accused by Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb of agreeing, during their abortive talks, that a compulsory levy was an option that had to be considered.
"Andrew's not being straight with people on this, because it was specifically recognised that there were both compulsory and voluntary options, and Andrew included that in his own draft statement of principles, and that's one of the key issues that we have to resolve," Mr Lamb told The Politics Show.
"Then it suddenly becomes the issue that results in the Tories abandoning the process and going for a very aggressive form of advertising."
Labour leaflet
He added: "I believe this has been under planning for some time and I think Andrew was genuinely trying to engage in discussion with the two of us about a really important reform.
"And I think he's been undermined by (Tory communications chief) Andy Coulson, David Cameron or whoever, and there is a divide within the Conservative Party which has prevented Andrew pursuing what was a really important attempt to build consensus."
Mr Lansley insisted this was "not true".
He said the statement the three health spokesmen had drawn up after their two meetings had set out clearly that there were "differences".
"They (Labour) wanted a compulsory levy - a death tax - and I don't," he said.
He also insisted there had been no agreement to suspend party political campaigning during the cross party talks, which he had initiated.
The Conservatives have circulated copies of a local Labour leaflet, sent on behalf of Labour's Bolton North East MP David Crausby and apparently distributed last week, which accused the Tories of scrapping the government's care plans.
But Mr Lansley admitted the "RIP" poster about Labour's plans had been based on a story in the Guardian newspaper, which had been denied by the government.
He denied it had been a pre-planned assault on the government, saying the poster had been "turned round" by Tory HQ within 24 hours of the story appearing in the newspaper.
'Lot to learn'
The Conservatives have stepped up their criticism of the government after it emerged pollsters had been employed to test the idea of a 10% tax on estates to fund elderly care.
And Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove has also weighed in, with a personal attack on Andy Burnham.
Mr Gove, who is two years younger than the health secretary and has been an MP for less time, told BBC One's Andrew Marr programme Mr Burnham was a "young politician, idealistic, but he has a lot to learn."
The Tories have proposed a voluntary levy instead, which would guarantee free personal care.
Eighteen charities including Carers UK, the National Care Forum, Age Concern, Help the Aged, Alzheimer's Society and Macmillan Cancer Support urged the political parties not to reduce the issue to "election soundbites" and "poster slogans".
In a letter to The Times, they said: "The vexed question of who pays is unquestionably difficult, and the solutions may be controversial - but the costs of failing to act are simply too great to allow the debate needed to be drowned out by party-political squabbling."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8514762.stm
As the state's capacity is limited and family input likely to decline, should the community deliver and fund long-term care and support?
In this Viewpoint, David Brindle from The Guardian asserts that demographic and societal changes mean there will be a growing shortfall of family carers. Therefore it is imperative that care and support is reintegrated with, and owned by, the wider community.
He also states that:
Summary
Download as PDF, 12 pages, 0.12 MB
Any new settlement on long-term care and support must address the apportionment of responsibility for its delivery as well as its funding. With the state's capacity limited and family input likely to decline, the wider community must expect to play a growing role. This offers an opportunity to end social care's marginalisation, argues David Brindle.
Key points
http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/care-and-support-community-responsibi...