insights

Where is the urgency to fix our broken social care system?

Where is the urgency to fix our broken social care system?

Written by

Kevin Armstrong

Policy Lead

Has the time come for adult social care in England to have its own Extinction Rebellion? There is an irresponsible lack of urgency, considering that the quality of people’s lives is at serious risk. It’s hard to imagine how the sector could be expected to cope with a more toxic environment.

Increasing numbers of people (1.4million last year) say they simply aren’t getting the care and support that they need; grant subsidies such as the Better Care Fund run out in 2020; and to top it off, the Prime Minister confirmed last month that the Government’s Social Care Green Paper still isn’t ready to be published, despite the fact it was first promised in 2017, then again by the end of 2018, and then yet again by Spring 2019. 

Evidence even seems to suggest that the sector has already stopped coping, with life expectancy now in decline.

Despite all this, local and European elections have passed without any meaningful policy change, other than widespread increases in Council Tax to plaster over the funding gaps. And while Brexit has dominated proceedings in recent months, there must be some explanation for all the inaction. Could it be political disinterest, or perhaps just an entire absence of ideas?

Disinterest does appear to be part of the problem. YouGov’s issue tracker shows an overall decline in the public’s recognition of health as one of the most important issues facing the country since the NHS 5-year £20.5bn funding plan was revealed last year, even though this commitment didn’t benefit social care as far as we could tell. If the poll results are anything to go by, what adult social care really needs to do to earn greater public interest is to start its own equivalent of the ongoing divisive and media engrossing Brexit debate.

Those of us who are interested in adult social care might be hoping that the Government’s long-anticipated Green Paper will be the catalyst for the debate, attention and action that the sector sorely needs. This is why it’s all the more frustrating to hear the non-committal announcements about its release “at the earliest opportunity”.

I suspect that fear about stoking further political unrest (if that’s possible) might be partly to blame, even if it would help to elevate public and political interest in the issue. But it also feels like the Government is struggling for ideas that have a fighting chance of addressing the immediate and future problems facing the sector.

Here are a couple of thoughts as a starter for (Number) 10. 

While it’s true that the lack of social care costs the NHS significantly (for example by creating delays to a patient’s hospital discharge), siphoning off some of the NHS 5-year £20.5bn funding for social care would leave less for other important purposes and doubtless restart the ‘£350 million a week’ Brexit bus broken promise complaints. Any funding needs to be sourced elsewhere, even if the Government wants to integrate health and social care. 

If the Government also wants to ensure long-term sustainability and best practice, as it has stated, it’s time they considered what can be done to back people who already deliver exactly that.

From our work at UnLtd, we know that there are social-purpose businesses and social entrepreneurs operating across the UK that are primed and ready to scale up their work delivering solutions to the issues posed by our ageing society: 

  • Social-purpose businesses such as My Personal Alarm Watch, who create wearable technology designed in conjunction with older people, to help them to live independently for longer at home. 
  • Or Golf in Society, which makes a huge difference to lives of Parkinson’s and dementia patients - as well as their families and carers - by getting patients out onto the fairway for a round of golf as part of a friendly, supportive group. 
  • And Shift8, a company who create award-winning interactive games for people affected by mid to late stage dementia, that aim to stimulate physical activity.

 

These are just a handful of the many social-purpose ventures that exist because of a need in our society to provide care, support and wellbeing to those in later life, that is unavailable to many people. 

If local and national governments are desperately looking for innovation and new ideas, they could do a lot worse than look at how social entrepreneurs are coming up with solutions to our worsening social care crisis. It might even avert a rebellion.