Money alone won’t get us far with sorting out social care

Most contributions on the social care debate in Britain focus on how the sector needs more money. That is not wrong. The care of elderly people, and younger people with physical disabilities or mental health and learning difficulties, has long been regarded as the poor relation to the National Health Service. 

But in our new report, Fixing Social Care, we argue that money alone won’t get us far, because the whole social care delivery system is broken. Spending more money is like pouring more fuel into an engine that has already seized up.

There are 400,000 people in residential homes—more than twice the number in hospital—and thousands more who get care services delivered to their own doors. Most homes are independent, though some of their clients are funded by the local authorities, who also maintain some residential homes of their own. 

But most homes to which local authority clients are sent are outdated and substandard. Some are converted hotels, with narrow corridors, stairs and poky rooms without ensuite bathrooms. Meanwhile, the ageing population continues to grow. Plainly, a massive building programme is needed. 

Likewise, the services that local authorities deliver to people’s homes are patchy and poor. Families often hire their own carers to fill the gaps. But few of those have any worthwhile qualifications or training.

People have talked about rolling social care into the National Health Service. That would create an unmanageably vast monopoly. We need exactly the opposite—new partnerships with the private sector and the public to rebuild our crumbling homes, make social care insurance affordable, and to create a sustainable system that actually works.

Read Dr Eamonn Butler and Paul Saper’s paper via the link below: