The Saga issue – caring for carers
“Doing nothing is not an option. Something has to be done now and to cope with the even higher demand in the future. So not only must we improve the service here and now but we have to transform the nature of social care” Phil Hope, Minister for Care Services, launches a discussion paper on the future of care this month. David Seymour asks him – will it do any good?
David Seymour: The Government has produced rather a lot of initiatives about social care in the past year and has certainly paid lip service to the importance of carers. How will this new Green Paper add anything?
Phil Hope: I want it to spell out what the 21st century system of care and support will be. The system we have today was designed at the end of the 1940s, when most people were cared for at home, mainly by female relatives. Sixty years on, there is a very different situation in two ways. People have different expectations and there has also been huge and continuing demographic change. For the first time there are more people over the age of 65 than of working age. Of course it’s good news that people are living longer but it creates problems and pressures on the system.
In these circumstances, doing nothing is not an option. Something has to be done now and to cope with the even higher demand in the future. So not only must we improve the service here and now but we have to transform the nature of social care.
DS: Planning for the future doesn’t really help people who are under terrific pressure now, does it?
PH: We have already done a lot. Policies like Putting People First are making a real difference and we have provided an additional half a billion pounds to local authorities over the next three years to specifically help carers. But we have also to take a longer-term look at how social care will be provided in 30 years’ time and that is what the Green Paper is going to do. For instance, it will tackle how to improve preventive policies, so that some of those who would otherwise need care can be kept independent. And it will consider what more can be done to support those who need care and those who provide it.
Crucially, it will look at what is affordable by spelling out various funding models.
DS: It has been worked out that carers save the Government £87 billion a year – almost the cost of the health service – and there is already a £6 billion “black hole” in the funding of carers, yet, as we all know, we are going through very difficult times economically. How will the Green Paper deal with this?
PH: There are two very different perspectives which have to be balanced. On one side we have older people, many of them Saga Magazine readers, who understandably say: “I have worked all my life, paid taxes all my life, saved all my life, and now I suddenly risk losing it all to pay for my care. The state should be finding the money.” On the other side you have 25-year-olds saying: “I am working and paying taxes but I can’t afford to start buying a home, while older people who own their homes outright are asking me to pay more taxes to cover the cost of their care. That’s not fair.” Both points of view are understandable and we need to find a funding system for social care which takes both into account. We need fairness between the generations and we also need fairness within generations, as there is also resentment from older people who have saved and find they aren’t entitled to help while those who didn’t save get financial help.
The Green Paper will spell out these challenges and explain the conflicting difficulties. We are determined to deal with this, whereas the Tories have put the funding of social care into a “Too difficult to do” box.
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