MPs call for councils to lead PCTs on care

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Funding for older people's care should be transferred from NHS budgets into local area agreement-based grants, MPs have concluded.

A report by the All Party Parliamentary Local Government Group, published today, called for called for a radical re-shaping of the way older people's care is financed.

The cross party group of MPs and peers said councils should be given the lead over PCTs in commissioning local health and social care in its Never Too Late for Living Report. In particular, it emphasised the need to be able to commission preventative services, such as falls programmes, that can demonstrate a reduced burden on health services.

Group chair Clive Betts told LGC that a range of pilot projects should be established to find the best way to dismantle the barriers between council and NHS care services. "It doesn't have to mean a massive reorganisation," he said. "There are a number of authorities that are interested in trying it out."

The inquiry was being carried out ahead of the government's own recommendations on older people's care due next spring,

Local Government Information Unit chief executive Andy Sawford added: "Everyone working in this area knows we need to prevent illness, not treat it.  This means paying for exercise classes to avoid paying for operations, but it consistently fails to happen.  We need to give councils the tools to move the money or things will never change."