Government pledges to publish Adult Social Care Green Paper by April

The long-delayed Adult Social Care Green Paper will be published by April by this year, the government has said.

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) Director for Care and Transformation, Ed Moses, made the announcement during a speech to the Westminster Health Forum yesterday.

Ed said the Green Paper, whose publication has been repeatedly delayed, would be published in the “coming weeks” and by no later than April.

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The DHSC director said the Green Paper, which had been due to be released by the end of last year, had been delayed to because of the NHS 10-year plan, which was published last week (see Leaders care for Social Care Green Paper after government publishes NHS 10-year plan).

He said the Green Paper would address unfairness in social care funding by looking into the three areas of: funding reform; changing how the funding system works; and baseline funding.

Ed said there were regional inequalities in funding that also needed to be addressed.

In defence of the government’s support of the social care system, Mr Moses said spending on the sector had increased by 9% in real terms between 2015-16 and 2019-20.

The DHSC director said government last year had contributed to a 43% drop in delayed transfers of care.