The Law Commission aims to review English and Welsh adult social care law and has published a report outlining the areas which it believes are in need of reform. If the government agrees it will start a substantive project including a full consultation straight away.

The Law Commission is a non-political independent body, set up by Parliament to keep all English and Welsh Law under review, and to recommend reform where it is needed. It has undertaken this task in relation to adult social care as it is widely recognized that the law has grown too complex, and much of it is based on outdated principles.

Adult social care refers to the responsibility of social service departments, primary care trusts and other bodies to provide a range of services to adults and their carers. Examples of these include: home care, adaptations and equipment, day centres and care homes. It also includes the mechanisms for determing eligibility for these services, delivering and charging for them and protecting vunerable adults.

One of the issues that The Law Commission wishes to tackle is establishing a set of overarching principles to help organisations understand their duties and make service users aware of their rights. The issue is obviously of relevance to elderly people because of the substantial numbers that need social care.

A full list of all the areas which the Law Commission wants to tackle are set out in: Adult Social Care: Scoping Report which can be downloaded free from www.lawcom.gov.uk/adult_social_care.htm