The approach to dealing with care for the elderly must change, or remain ‘doomed to failure', according to the Local Government Association. Financial pressures remain great on councils as they struggle to find the money to support an increasingly-ageing population, and continue to fund other essential frontline services. Sir Simon Milton, chairman of the LGA, said a crucial step would be to ‘re-map' the ‘artificial battle lines' of accountability between central and local government, with the ‘monolithic' reins of central government loosened and money and choices put into people's hands. He called for a new approach to the way in which the care of elderly people was dealt with by increasing investment in local services, which supported people before they reached crisis point. ‘If we are to transform providers to deliver better and more personalised services, then the machinery of the state supporting that must fundamentally change,' he said. ‘Personalisation and localism are two sides of the same coin. Imposing an individualist model from Whitehall would, I believe be doomed to failure. But we could rearrange existing structures in different ways.'
