Ending the Social Care Crisis: A New Road to Reform

I spend an awful lot of time at home by myself, quite lonely and quite fed up. (Health and Social Care Committee, 2020a)

In future years, even more staff will be needed – another 480,000 by 2035 if present trends continue (Skills for Care, 2021).

social care is the key to unlocking the possibility of living the best life we can.

They found it frustrating trying to find a way through the bureaucracy to access help and knowing who to contact.

NHS-funded nursing care (FNC). In 2021, this is worth £187.60 per week and is paid directly to the home

survey of the views of people who use adult social care. In 2019–20, 64 per cent said they were ‘extremely satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their care and support and a further 24 per cent were ‘quite satisfied’ (NHS Digital, 2020c).

estimated value of unpaid care provided by family members and other friends and relatives. If anything, this increased during COVID-19 and is now estimated to be worth £193 billion a year in England (Carers UK, 2020).

Arguably, we have spent too much time considering policy content – the ‘what’ of social care reform – and too little time on policy process – the ‘how’ question – and hardly any time at all on implementation – the ‘when’ question.

Non-medical care, or social care as it is termed today,