Moving to a national assessment system for social care could offer consistency and efficiency benefits, a study suggests.

In a report by The King’s Fund titled ‘Fixing social care: the six key problems and how to tackle them’, the think tank argues that the Casey Commission, which was set up by the Government to explore social care reform in England, should discuss transitioning to a national system of assessment to cater to people’s social care needs.

According to the author of the report, Senior Fellow Simon Bottery, the move would ‘limit the risk of individual authorities “rationing” care because of budget constraints’.

The think tank argues that the ‘very minimum’ level of reform would include providing more widespread access to publicly funded social care, capping care costs and creating a ‘more generous’ means-tested system.

Identifying key areas for improvements in the sector, the report found the social care system is faced with the following challenges: access, quality, workforce pay, market fragility, disjointed care and an access and performance-related ‘postcode lottery’.

Among its recommendations, the think tank urges the Government to deliver the £500m proposed in the Fair Pay Agreement and calls for an NHS healthcare review, which the author argues ‘plays an overlooked role in social care’.

The report also argues that cost rises faced by social care providers are ‘not sustainable’, as well as suggesting that in the ‘partnership between the individual and the state’, the latter should deliver the majority of the care costs.

Mr Bottery said: ‘It would be a major change to shift away from the principle that people’s social care needs and finances should be assessed by local authorities. However, it works well in other countries and now is the time to explore whether it would be an improvement here as well.’