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Care experts are calling on the government to act urgently on reform of adult social care after it was revealed that long-awaited proposals may not be delivered for another three years.
Ministers have announced the first step towards creating a National Care Service to ease the workload of the NHS.
A new package of support for the sector includes more funding for elderly and disabled people to make home improvements and stay out of hospital.
At the same time, health secretary Wes Streeting announced an independent commission led by Baroness Louise Casey would begin in the spring.
The first phase, reporting next year, will recommend medium-term reforms, and the second, expected by 2028, will advise on longer-term reforms.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said reform was long overdue, but that even if all went well, it would be the early 2030s before older people received any substantial benefit – 30 years after Japan and Germany modernised their social care systems.
“That’s a source of profound regret and it leaves today’s older people and their families to make the best of a system widely agreed to be letting many down,” she said.
The Homecare Association, which represents employers of carers who visit people at home, said the announcements “could finally close the doom loop social care reform has been stuck in for too long”.
Jane Townson, chief executive, said: “The social care sector is on its last legs. Without urgent action, there will be nothing left to reform.
“Baroness Casey’s commission is the last opportunity this government has to deliver the transformation we desperately need.”
But Dr Townson slated plans for care workers to be trained to perform health checks for patients in the home to relieve pressure on the NHS, saying it would worsen the situation because there was no money for training.
Ms Abrahams said the proposals were “unequivocally good news” but added: “The most sensitive issue of how to fund the social care needs of our rapidly ageing population is not set to be addressed until the second phase of the commission and this is a major concern, partly because today’s older people do not have time on their side but also because who knows what the state of the world, our politics or our economy will be by then.”
Mr Streeting has invited opposition parties to join the reform discussions “to ensure the National Care Service survives governments of different shades”.
Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, warned of the plans “becoming yet another report that gathers dust while the sector crumbles”.
He said: “The harm caused by government inaction is already deep, and the consequences for those who currently draw on care will be irreparable if immediate intervention is not forthcoming.
“Waiting until 2028 is not an option.”
Helen Walker, chief executive of Carers UK, representing unpaid carers, welcomed news of the reforms, adding: “As part of the first phase, we must see quick and decisive action on any recommendations brought forward by the commission to improve social care, and government must ensure there is sufficient funding in the forthcoming spending review to deliver and to prevent further cuts in social care.
“We also need to see discussions on longer term sustainable funding for social care started as soon as practicably possible.”
The 2025 spending review is due to be published in late spring.
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