The government has pulled back the curtain on reforms that it says will make continuing care services in the NHS "fairer, faster and easier to understand".

Under the terms of the £220 million national framework, which will come into force in October, nursing and social care services will be streamlined in order to provide more financial support to those most in need.

Care services minister Ivan Lewis claims the reforms will bring an end to the 'postcode lottery' that has haunted continuing care services in the past.

"We understand that families do have to make difficult and emotional decisions when someone has to go into residential care and this can be made worse by having to consider how this will be funded," he said.

"This will make the system faster and more convenient for both patients and professionals. In particular, it will be of help to those who previously been excluded, such as younger adults with long term neurological conditions and older people with dementia or other mental health needs."

But campaigners have said the new framework "does not go far enough" to resolving the "horrific unfairness and inconsistencies which have so far blighted the lives of many older people".

Help the Aged's legal officer Jean Gould commented: "The Department of Health has attempted to produce a coherent framework, but the existing legal and funding frameworks are so fundamentally flawed – anything less than root and branch reform is inadequate.

"Unless the government accepts the challenge of putting right a system of health and social care that is failing the growing older population and their families, it is simply fiddling while Rome burns."

Mr Lewis himself accepts that the reforms will "not solve all the problems at once".

"But over time we expect there to be a real improvement that will lead to fair and consistent access to NHS funding across England, irrespective of location, diagnosis or personal circumstances," he insisted.

More than 31,000 people currently receive continuing care on the NHS, with 70 per cent of care-home residents having some or all of their personal care costs paid for by the government.

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