A new unit is being established at the Department of Health to encourage social entrepreneurs to help create ways to provide choice in health and social care, It will encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in health and social care and aims to develop new services to meet patients and service users’ needs better.Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis said the voluntary and community sector was well paced to understand what services people in the community needed and it could help the Government to meet its White Paper commitment to improving the quality of services, making them more flexible and making them available closer to where people live.

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The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, wants voluntary and community bodies, the third sector, to work more closely with government to deliver public services. He said that it seems clear that partnerships between commercial companies, third sector organisations and the public sector will, more and more, be the way public services are delivered. But if there are barriers that prevent this collaboration, they will be removed. Rules that prevent private and third sector bodies bidding fairly against the public sector will be changed. He outlined a range of measures, including the appointment of minister, to enhance the role of the sector.Ed Miliband has been appointed as Minister for the Third Sector. He will head the newly created Office of the Third Sector which among other tasks will work to ensure that longer-term funding arrangements become the norm rather than the exception. A new Public Service Innovation Team will be established in the Office of the Third Sector, which will work with the IDeA to be an intelligence bank for best practice in the sector and act as a bridge for sharing and fostering innovation across the public sector.

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With the proportion of the population aged 65 and over increasing steadily and the concept of old age being redefined as a rewarding and active part of life, housing need can no longer simply be equated with care and support. The author looks at the emerging Continuing Care Retirement Communities which present an alternative to both sheltered housing and residential care, providing for a whole range of needs and individual circumstances.