cloudBuy welcomes the new Care Act passed by Parliament

cloudBuy, the world's leading online social care marketplace, has welcomed Parliament's Royal Assent for the Care Act 2014, a landmark piece of legislation that will lead to the most significant changes to the health and social care system in more than 60 years.

Close reading of the Care Act reveals several new initiatives to drive up quality, increase transparency and transform spending. This includes making local authorities responsible for early intervention, cutting the overall cost of care and facilitating access to preventative services that help maintain people's health. It gives individuals greater power to improve social care delivery, helping vulnerable people and their carers source equivalent services at the best price.

Health Minister Dr Daniel Poulter MP said, "We are putting people and their carers in control of personal care for the first time and helping local authorities to operate more efficiently. The intelligent use of technology to allow people to manage their own care at an early stage is critical to our plans for a modern care system that meets the needs of an ageing population and provides better care at a significantly lower cost to the individual and government."

"This ambitious step forward will transform the lives of silver surfers and the families of those who require any form of adult social care," said Ronald Duncan, Chairman and CIO, cloudBuy. "In the same way as the establishment of the NHS was a ground breaking step in global health, the Care Act is a ground-breaking step in global care.

"We recently commissioned a survey of the over 50s that showed eight in ten worry about aging and some are even being kept awake by their fears. This Act empowers everybody, whether they are self-funded or council supported, to ease their worries with greater control and more certainty over finding and purchasing appropriate care."

cloudBuy's e-commerce technology is already being used by several local authorities to put the requirements of the Care Act into practice. For more information, please visit www.cloudbuy.com