A new care landscape The Business of Care, Demos, March 21st 2007 Neil Churchill Communications...
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Transcript of A new care landscape The Business of Care, Demos, March 21st 2007 Neil Churchill Communications...
A new care landscape
The Business of Care, Demos, March 21st 2007
Neil Churchill
Communications Director
Care in 2007 • 6 million people in the UK currently provide some form of
unpaid care• Older people provide a significant portion: 16% of men
and 17% of women aged 50+ provide unpaid care. • 70% of the people cared for are over 65• In the next 25 years it is estimated that the number of
people providing care will have to increase to 9 million
The Deficit Model of Care
We tend to think of care as being delivered:
(1) Formally by a (professionally trained and skilled) workforce; and
(2) Informally by relatives and friends, who may or may not be in paid work.
Our understanding of care has largely been characterised by the relationship between the care-giver, who we tend to perceive as female, and the care-receiver, who is assumed to be dependent.
The Demographic Realities
Demographic and socio-economic change means our future expectations of care-giving can no longer be based on the assumptions of the past.
We know there will be:
• A near doubling in percentage of 65+ population between now and 2050.
• A lower proportion of older people living in married households by early 2030s
• An 47% increase in the 50+ population living in rural areas over the next 2 decades
Care Model under Pressure We also need to consider the impact of the following:
• The introduction of a higher State Pension Age on the numbers of people working for longer
• Potentially shrinking pool of formal care workers.
A MORI Poll for Carers UK (2006) showed that 35% of
people surveyed will not or cannot provide care in the future. The British Social Attitudes survey indicates that people are willing, but don’t feel they
can be mainly responsible.
A Bleak Care Landscape?
Questions:
Will longer working lives and a reduced state role place impossible pressures on informal care?
Or can we construct a new care ethic that moves away from notions of dependence but which is centred on adjustment and co-production instead?
Networks of care
It’s useful to think of care not just as an act of citizenship, or an economic contribution, but also as a social ‘glue’ that can increase social cohesion.
A new ‘ethic of care’ would see care valued as a ‘public good’ and mainstreamed into a range of daily activities. Care would no longer be ‘left to certain people’, but it would be ‘co-produced’ and mainstreamed into all our lives.
Who are the caregivers of the future?
It’s worth questioning certain orthodoxies about who will provide unpaid care and what care constitutes. Increasingly care is being conceived of in reciprocal terms. Positive examples include:
• ‘Homeshare’ schemes• Community networks of support (e.g: Timebank
schemes)• Extra care housing being treated as a community
resource that other members of the community can use.
Model of Inter-Dependency
IndividualIndividual
FamilyFamily
LocalLocalAuthorityAuthority
Friends/Friends/ColleaguesColleagues
NeighboursNeighbours
Time bankTime bank volunteervolunteer
TemporaryTemporaryLodgerLodger
HealthHealth MentorsMentors
Housing Housing residentsresidents
New forms of New forms of reciprocal supportreciprocal support
Traditional FormsTraditional FormsOf SupportOf Support
But…New Pressures on Networks
Individual Making Individual Making AdjustmentsAdjustments
GrandchildrenGrandchildrento look afterto look after
Family membersFamily members migratingmigrating
Loss of BridgingSocial Capital
Extended WorkingExtended Working LivesLives
A New Divide?
There’s a risk a gulf might emerge between those people that benefit from the networks they belong to and those
people that remain dependent on the state.
The well networked
• Light-touch government•Inter-dependent
The Poorly Networked
•Difficult to map•But dependent on government
IndividualIndividualIndividualIndividual
StateState
DistantDistantFamilyFamily
Policy Implications
The recent announcements in the New Deal for Carers were a welcome advance.
However, to truly move away from a deficit model of care we need to stop thinking solely in terms about what the state can do to help support care-givers and care-receivers.
In a ‘mosaic society’ we need to give greater thought about how care can be embedded in communities and transcend traditional ties.