Social care: Plans to fund improvement in England unveiled

The government has unveiled how it plans to spend some of its planned tax hike to improve social care in England.

Over the next three years, £300m will be allocated for housing support, with £150m for new technology to help carers.

An additional £500m will be put towards improving training and qualifications for staff.

Labour said the plans "fall woefully short of the mark" and would not solve an immediate crisis in the sector.

The spending plans have been detailed in a new long-term strategy paper for improving care services over the next decade.

They will be paid for using money from a planned increase to National Insurance, a tax paid by working people, from next April.

The proposals also include plans for a new service to help people make repairs and changes to their homes for care needs.

There will also be £5m spent on a pilot scheme to find new ways to inform people about how they can access available support.

Unveiling the plans in the Commons, Health Minister Gillian Keegan said they would give people more choice and support to lead "independent lives".

She added that "successive governments" had ducked the challenges posed by the sector, but ministers were now "determined to get it right".