RCN responds to the Queen’s Speech

Published: 18 November 2009

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) responded today to proposals for the forthcoming Parliamentary session, welcoming in particular the Government's commitment to provide free personal care to those with the greatest need. Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said:

"We welcome the government's pledge to introduce free personal care for those with the greatest need, meaning people can be cared for in the comfort of their own home for as long as possible.

"However, free personal care is just one piece of the jigsaw. Significant change relies on ministers seeing the bigger social care picture, which spans the often complicated relationship between hospitals, care homes and community services.

"Greater clarity is also needed on how the proposed National Care Service would be funded and how 'highest needs' is defined - it is vital that all health and nursing care costs continue to be funded by the NHS, irrelevant of how and where social care is provided.

"Nurses work on the interface between health and social care and are in a prime position to help shape the National Care Service. Next week, we will be publishing the results of our member consultation which gauged the views of nurses on the planned reforms.

"We look forward to working closely with the government over the coming months to help shape a fairer social care system for the future."

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Notes to Editors

For further information, interviews or illustrations please contact the RCN Media Office on 0207 647 3633, press.office@rcn.org.uk or visit http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/media

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interest of nurses, healthcare assistants and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.