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The consultation and engagement process - ‘Paying for Care in Wales: creating a fair and sustainable system’, will take place between November 2008 and March 2009, and will focus on how the current system of paying for care will need to change in order to meet future needs in addition to examining the balance of responsibility that lies between the state, the individual and their families.

It is predicted that a large funding gap will develop between the cost of care services and the money that is available to pay for them in future years as the general population grows older and the percentage of working age people decreases.

By 2018 the number of those aged 85 and over is projected to increase by 29% from the current 72,000 to 93,000 and those aged 65 to 84 are projected to increase by 24% from 469,000 to 582,000.

Said Gwenda Thomas:

Almost every family in Wales faces the reality that people they love may need care and support because of age or disability.

Because of major changes – both demographic and societal – we have to think very carefully about how the care system will need to change in order to ensure that future needs and demands are appropriately met.

What’s important to remember is that the care system isn’t something that only involves older people in society – nearly all of us will one day come into contact with the care system in one form or another.

It is therefore essential that as many people as possible – of all ages and backgrounds – join in the debate and have their say.

Questions that will be debated during the consultation process include:

• Should the Government do more to ensure that people prepare for the costs of their own care, for instance by making some sort of saving for these costs compulsory?
• Should the system be the same for everybody or should we consider varying the ways we allocate government support for individuals according to certain principles?
• Should there be one system for everyone or different systems depending on the type of need for care and support that somebody has?
• Which is more important: local flexibility or national consistency?
• What should the balance be between targeting government resources at those who are least able to pay and having a system that supports those who plan and save?

A series of events will be arranged throughout Wales to give stakeholders – representing both young and old – an opportunity to voice their opinions. These events will take place on 10 December in Cardiff and 15 January in Llandudno.

In addition, an advisory group of key stakeholders will be established to help shape the consultation process in order to ensure that effective and appropriate input is obtained from wider stakeholders and citizens and to represent their views. The group’s membership will comprise representation from a range of stakeholder organisations including older people’s organisations, disability organisations, Local Government, the NHS, children and young people’s organisations as well as care user representatives, carers’ representatives and providers.

An interactive website, Paying for Care in Wales, has also been established that will enable people to respond directly to key questions online. The website can be found at www.payingforcareinwales.net

Given that a number of issues, both devolved and non-devolved, will be discussed as part of the consultation it will run parallel to the consultation that is taking place in England.

The findings of the consultation will be used to help shape the Assembly Government’s, and the UK Government’s, plans to change the system for paying for care. These plans will be set out in Green papers for Wales and for England in 2009.