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| LSE Care Calculator shows disparities in social care across the UKPage contents > Press Cuttings The Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at LSE and the BBC have launched a Care Calculator to raise awareness of the levels of social care support currently available in England. The Care Calculator is web based tool which illustrates the levels of care older people and those with physical disabilities receive, and the level of financial support they are likely to receive from Local Authorities to pay for their care. Developed by Professor Martin Knapp and Dr Jose-Luis Fernandez, the tool allows you to look at different scenarios and suggest what care you would expect to receive and how it would be funded - it then shows you the level of care and financial support you would currently receive. Dr Jose-Luis Fernandez explains: 'The idea is that many people are not aware that they are not automatically entitled to state support with their social care needs, and that quite often receiving even modest care packages can be crippling financially. This is particularly so now that Local Authorities have concentrated support on people with very high levels of disabilities and with very low means, leaving a group with moderate needs and/or moderate means very badly off.' 'It is important to note, though, that the tool does not calculate levels of entitlement, and cannot be used to estimate what a local authority should be providing to particular individuals so people cannot use the tool to see whether their care package is right.' 'Within the English social care system Local Authorities decide the levels of care they provide. As a result, the level of support provided to persons with identical needs will vary significantly across England. What the tool provides is an idea of the broad national picture of levels of support received (private and state funded), and likely levels of Local Authority financial support.' The first aim of the Care Calculator is to provide information about current levels of support. However, the web tool also has a Care Questionnaire which asks people's views about the current support system, and about the way in which they would like to see it change. This is important in the context of the recent Government announcement of a broad consultation process leading to a green paper on Care and the researchers are hoping to learn about people's attitudes to the care system first hand, in order to contribute to the general debate about the future of the Social Care system. Professor Martin Knapp said: 'The survey should provide a very interesting picture of society's attitudes towards the social care system. We see this as a great opportunity to raise further awareness of key policy issues in the long-term care field.' The preliminary results of the survey will be released on Thursday 31 January as part of a live debate on the BBC Radio 4 programme You and Yours. Click here to use the Care Calculator and take part in the survey. Notes BBC Radio 4 is running a series of programmes this week on care provision in the UK and Martin Knapp and Dr Fernandez will appear on Thursday 31 January to take part in a session with a studio audience to feed back the results of the survey and to have a debate with the care services minister Ivan Lewis. Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/careintheuk/programmes.shtml for more information. Press Cuttings
Society Guardian
Adding up the cost of social care
Community Care 30 January 2008 ^ Back to top
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