Social Care for older people

A report on social care, commissioned by the U.K. government, has recently been published. It includes thirteen background papers on care for older people. Unlike the National Health Service, social care is not free here but means-tested, with 50% paid by the public and 50% by the private purse. The system is riddled, says a leading Guardian article, with unacceptable variations in standards of care and grossly unequal charges between local councils. We are drifting, says the editorial, to a U.S.-style service where the poor are covered by the state, the wealthy pay for private care and those in the middle have to fend for themselves.

The Report is the work of Sir Derek Wanless. In April 2002, he produced the report Securing our Future Health: Taking a Long-Term View, for the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is a Trustee to the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts and has had an interesting career in banking and the arts. Clearly he is one of the ‘great and good’.

Wanless sets out the social demands which will arise in the next 20 years when he estimates the number of people over 85 will rise by 66% compared with the present 10% of the overall population. He advocates less use of residential care for the very elderly and estimates that 30% of current clients could in fact still be in their homes. Apparently there is a pilot scheme in Scotland where all sorts of additional aids for a house-bound person secures their safety and welfare. He argues that the state should provide 70% of the agreed social care package in future, the rest still paid for privately.

The government’s care minister – Liam Byrne – has responded positively to the report, and has a new expert group which includes the author of this report, it’s brief being to feed such concerns and costs into the forthcoming Treasury review that will settle the next three years of public spending. I have the general impression reinforced by this report, that suddenly a whole area of human need in our society – the respect for and care of older people – is beginning to be a public issue supported by widespread concern. I do hope so.

Bryan