A report set out the business case for social work. It said that local authorities that invested in social work saved much greater costs later on.
Source: The Business Case for Social Work with Adults, College of Social Work
Links: Report | CSW press release
Date: 2012-Dec
A new book examined what the contemporary financial context meant for social policy, social work, and the relationship between them.
Source: Bill Jordan and Mark Drakeford, Social Work and Social Policy under Austerity, Palgrave Macmillan
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Dec
A new book examined recent changes in long-term care policies in western Europe. It said that recent reforms had brought about an increasing convergence in policies. Most of the new programmes had developed a new general approach to long-term care, based on a better integration of social care and healthcare.
Source: Costanzo Ranci and Emmanuele Pavolini (eds), Reforms in Long Term Care Policies in Europe: Investigating institutional change and social impacts, Springer
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Dec
An article examined recent legal and policy developments in relation to the provision of adult social care in England. It highlighted the challenges raised by an increasingly ageing society and the enduring assumption that women would continue to undertake unpaid care – even though they were now substantially engaged in paid labour markets. It considered the extent to which the impact of caring, particularly for the elderly, was recognized within family, labour, and social welfare law. It reviewed the growing policy assumption that individuals were expected to plan for their own care in later life and that their needs would be met through the exercise of individual choice in a care market.
Source: Ann Stewart, 'From family to personal responsibility: the challenges for care of the elderly in England', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 34 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
A report said that the Dilnot Commission proposals for reforming care funding were so flawed that the government should look at alternatives. It called for a national health and care system funded by taxation. Integrating health and care would deliver better care for older and disabled people, while saving resources by using more appropriate care in or near the home rather than expensive hospital or residential care. A new health and care system could be funded from these savings; by diverting spending from other areas; by taxing universal benefits for older people; or by a new care duty on estates of wealthier older people.
Source: Stephen Burke, Ten Dilnot Flaws: Time for an alternative for funding better care, United for All Ages
Links: Report | UAA press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Oct
A think-tank report examined some of the main policy challenges that would confront a future Labour government. Separate chapters dealt with economic policy, employment policy, public services, and social care funding.
Source: Graeme Cooke, Patrick Diamond, and Steve Van Riel, Purple Papers: Real Change for Britain, Real Choices for Labour, Progress
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Oct
The Northern Ireland Executive published a discussion document on the future of adult social care services.
Source: Who Cares? The future of adult social care and support in Northern Ireland – A discussion document, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: Discussion document
Date: 2012-Sep
A think-tank report examined how long-term care policies could be modernized. It criticized the proposal (by the Dilnot commission) for a cap on the costs of care. It said that the cost of the cap would go mainly towards protecting the inheritances of better-off families, and the cap was unlikely to help develop a better market to insure against care needs. The priority should be to spend any available extra money on more choice and better quality of care for those who needed it. There were other ways of incentivizing self-provision to encourage forward planning for care costs.
Source: John Redwood MP, Care for the Elderly: The Limitations of the Dilnot Proposals, Centre for Policy Studies
Links: Report | Summary | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Aug
A new book examined ways in which European policy-makers and institutions could make social security systems more sustainable in the face of long-term demographic changes and a hostile global economic and financial environment. It investigated ways to achieve short and long-term financial viability. It also identified key mechanisms that worked to achieve social cohesion, such as greater emphasis on social rights and social dialogue. It then examined the main policy issues in sustaining major individual social security programmes, such as healthcare, social assistance and family benefits, pensions, unemployment and work incapacity benefits, as well as long-term care.
Source: Wouter van Ginneken, Sustaining European Social Security Systems in a Globalised Economy, Council of Europe
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Aug
A report by a committee of MSPs said that people should be given control over their own care budget, including being offered a direct payment to fund alternatives to council-run care. But local authority estimates of the associated costs were double the amount claimed by the Scottish Government.
Source: Stage 1 Report on the Social Care (Self-Directed Support) (Scotland) Bill, 10th Report 2012, SP Paper 178, Scottish Parliament Health and Sport Committee
Links: Report | Scottish Parliament press release | Cosla press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Jul
A report by an all-party group of MPs made a number of recommendations for action before 2015 to reform the care system and meet funding challenges. It said that the funding 'gap' was around 4.4 per cent per year, equivalent to £634 million. Local government and the National Health Service needed to integrate services and budgets to change the focus of social care services and spending towards prevention.
Source: Laurie Thraves, Janet Sillett, Jonathan Carr-West, and Andy Sawford, Care Now and for the Future: An inquiry into adult social care, All-Party Parliamentary Local Government Group
Links: Report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Jul
The coalition government published a White Paper on social care reform, together with a draft Bill. It said that it agreed 'in principle' with the recommendation of a government-appointed commission that there should be a lifetime cap on an individual's care costs. But it said that final decisions would depend on the outcome of the next public spending review, covering the period from 2015.
Source: Caring for Our Future: Reforming Care and Support, Cm 8378, Department of Health, TSO | Draft Care and Support Bill, Cm 8386, Department of Health, TSO
Links: White Paper | Impact assessment | Equality analysis | Draft Bill | Hansard | DH press release | HOC research brief | Conservative Party press release | Law Commission press release | ADASS press release | Alzheimers Society press release | BASW press release | BMA press release | Carers UK press release | CCN press release | CIH press release | CIPFA press release | Disability Rights UK press release | Intergenerational Foundation press release | JRF press release | Kings Fund press release | Labour Party press release | LGA press release | Mencap press release | NCA press release | NHF press release | NHS Confederation press release | NPC press release | Patients Association press release | RCN press release | REF press release | Scope press release | TLAP press release | TUC press release | UKHCA press release | VODG blog post | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Notes: The government simultaneously published the following:
• Reforming the Law for Adult Care and Support: The Government's Response to Law Commission Report 326 on Adult Social Care, Cm 8379, Department of Health, TSO
• Government response to the House of Commons Health Committee Report on Social Care (Fourteenth Report of Session 2010–12), Cm 8380, Department of Health, TSO
• Caring for Our Future: Progress Report on Funding Reform, Cm 8381, Department of Health, TSO
• Caring for Our Future: Summary of Responses, Department of Health
Date: 2012-Jul
A think-tank report said that the coalition government had effectively conceded that reform of social care funding in England could proceed on a cost-neutral basis, and yet had failed to set out options for funding reform.
Source: James Lloyd, Caps, Opt-Ins, Opt-Outs: Is England making progress in reforming care funding?, Strategic Society Centre
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jul
A new book said that care should be an essential value in private lives and public policies. It considered the importance of care to well-being and social justice, and applied insights from feminist care ethics to care work, and care within personal relationships. It also looked at 'stranger relationships', how people related to the places in which they lived, and the way in which public deliberation about social policy took place.
Source: Marian Barnes, Care in Everyday Life: An ethic of care in practice, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jun
A new book examined caring relationships, identities, and practices within and across a variety of cultural, familial, geographical, and institutional arenas. Separate sections covered: caring within educational institutions; caring among communities and networks; caring and families; and caring across the life-course.
Source: Chrissie Rogers and Susie Weller (eds.), Critical Approaches to Care: Understanding caring relations, identities and cultures, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Jun
A report highlighted the potential future funding gap in social care, and drew on the Dilnot Commission review to outline the possible options for reform. Potential solutions included: minimizing the cost of the Dilnot recommendations by opting for a higher level of caps; generating more productivity from existing social care services; and exploring options for redirecting elements of the health and welfare budgets into social care.
Source: Anita Charlesworth and Ruth Thorlby, Reforming Social Care: Options for Funding, Nuffield Trust
Links: Report | Summary | Nuffield Trust press release | 2020 Public Services Hub press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-May
An article examined coverage arrangements for long-term social care across developed (OECD) countries. The main challenge for financing care services would be finding the right balance between fair protection and financial sustainability: this would be essential to ensure that financing care systems was sustainable in the long run, without shifting too large a burden on to future generations.
Source: Francesca Colombo and Jerome Mercier, 'Help wanted? Fair and sustainable financing of long-term care services', Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Volume 34 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
An article examined alternative options for reforming the English long-term care funding arrangements by examining the rationale for and consequences of recent developments in Germany, Japan, and France. In particular, it considered the implications of the reform options adopted in the different countries examined for equity and efficiency in the use of long-term care resources, and for the sustainability of the long-term care system as a whole.
Source: Jose-Luis Fernandez and Julien Forder, 'Reforming long-term care funding arrangements in England: international lessons', Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, Volume 34 Issue 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A letter signed by 85 organizations representing people working in frontline social care services warned that the system was in crisis – chronically under-funded, and in urgent need of reform. Without urgent action, 'too many older and disabled people would be left in desperate circumstances: struggling on alone, living in misery and fear.' It called on the coalition government to convene a care summit: difficult decisions, particularly decisions on how to fund reform, needed to be made without delay.
Source: Letter in Daily Mail, 4 May 2012
Links: Letter | Carers UK press release | Disability Rights UK press release | BBC report | Daily Mail report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-May
A think-tank report set out options for the government in addressing England's care crisis. Rising demand for care associated with population ageing would mean that the proportion of national income spent on care by the state would have to increase, just to maintain the existing inadequate system of entitlements and support. But there were positive choices that could be made that would result in a better, fairer system.
Source: James Lloyd, The Roadmap: England s choices for the care crisis, Strategic Society Centre
Links: Report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-May
A think-tank report said that the reform of social care proposed by the Commission on Funding of Care and Support (the Dilnot Commission) was mainly concerned with extending eligibility for care and in effect protecting the housing wealth of those fortunate enough to have accrued it. The coalition government risked forgetting the very poorest elderly and focusing its limited resources on the wrong group. The greatest priority remained ameliorating a formal care system that treated very many people very badly: the quality of care provided was of too low a standard, and there were many who did not receive care because their needs were not deemed sufficiently severe. The government needed to focus much-needed additional funding on this group first before, at a later date, potentially phasing in the Dilnot reforms.
Source: Transforming Social Care for the Poorest Older People, Centre for Social Justice
Links: Report | CSJ press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-May
A think-tank paper (by a Conservative MP) said that introducing direct payments as an option for social care could cut around £1 billion a year from spending on residential care. Direct payments should be made to family members to support informal care. People should be offered a lower cash payment than the care package – many would take this offer up because of the flexibility and freedom it offered. The role of local authorities should be to assess and allocate resources to individuals, and to ensure that an effective market could thrive: their role in commissioning and purchasing services should be drastically reduced.
Source: Chris Skidmore MP, The Social Care Market: Fixing a Broken System, Free Enterprise Group
Links: Paper | FEG press release
Date: 2012-May
A report called for a new strategy to stimulate growth in services to support older and disabled people – and to deliver a 'triple win' for families, employers, and the economy. It said that a 'new care economy' could not only help meet the needs of an ageing population and deliver substantial economic gains, but also mitigate growing costs to business of failures in care.
Source: Growing the Care Market: Turning a demographic challenge into an economic opportunity, Carers UK
Links: Report | Carers UK press release | BBC report | Community Care report
Date: 2012-May
A paper said that long-term social care should be funded through taxation in a way that was intergenerationally fair, with wealthier older people paying more. Tax funding would be fairer than a cap on care costs, and would also encourage joint working between health and social care services to keep older people out of hospital and better supported at home. Sufficient funds to cover increasing care costs could be found from wealthier older people by means-testing universal benefits for older people or Introducing a care duty on estates above a certain value.
Source: Stephen Burke, The Care Crunch: Decision time on reforming care funding, United for All Ages
Links: Paper | UAA press release
Date: 2012-May
A paper said that the broad policy concepts and detailed practice of personalization were rooted in, and informed by, human rights: both with regard to the general approach that human rights implied, and to the underpinning legal framework they provided.
Source: Kavita Chetty, John Dalrymple, and Henry Simmons, Personalisation and Human Rights, Centre for Welfare Reform
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-May
The Queen's Speech set out the coalition government's legislative programme for 2012-13. It included plans for a Draft Care and Support Bill. The draft Bill would set out plans to modernize adult care in England and make access to support clearer and more equal. This would include giving people greater choice, and making local councils adapt their services to people's needs and experiences.
Source: Queen's Speech, 9 May 2012, columns 3-5, House of Commons Hansard, TSO
Links: Hansard | Cabinet Office briefing | DH press release | ADASS press release | Alzheimers Society press release | Carers UK press release | Labour Party press release | LGA press release | Leonard Cheshire press release | Mencap press release | NLGN press release | NPC press release | Patients Association press release | PRTC press release | Scope press release | UKHCA press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-May
The Northern Ireland Executive launched its first-ever strategy for social work, aimed at strengthening support for frontline social workers and improving social work services. Key recommendations included: development of a regional social work out-of-hours service; introduction of extended/flexible hours; strengthening integrated and partnership approaches in practice; and improving employer support for frontline staff.
Source: Improving and Safeguarding Social Wellbeing: A Strategy for social work in Northern Ireland 2012-2022, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: Strategy | NIE press release | NIASW press release
Date: 2012-Apr
A briefing paper discussed the key policy implications of European research findings showing that, if existing patterns of social care use and supply persisted, supply of care was likely to fall behind demand. Meeting the required care capacity posed multifarious challenges for European welfare states, namely: how to limit the growing burden of long-term care expenditure on social security or government budgets, especially in countries that relied heavily on formal care; and how to avoid an increased informal caregiver burden, while at the same time ensuring adequate care for disabled older persons. Technological advances could help close the care gap, by reducing the need for care and boosting the productivity of formal and informal care workers, or by lessening the need for care. As it was impossible to assess whether these efficiency gains would suffice to bridge the care gap, policies should anticipate an increasing care burden and plan accordingly for how to deal with its consequences.
Source: Joanna Geerts and Peter Willeme, Projections of Use and Supply of Long-Term Care in Europe: Policy Implications, Policy Brief 12, European Network of Economic Policy Research Institutes
Links: Brief
Date: 2012-Apr
An article examined different interpretations of care needs. It considered the dynamic between (on the one side) the claims made on behalf of those with unpaid and paid caring responsibilities, and (on the other side) the framing and implementation of care policies by European organizations and national governments. These perspectives represented overlapping but competing frames for interpreting care needs – social justice (from below) and social investment (from above). Although the social investment frame provided some opportunities for claims to be met, it also limited the scope of social justice claims.
Source: Fiona Williams, 'Care relations and public policy: social justice claims and social investment frames', Families, Relationships and Societies, Volume 1 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
The Welsh Government began consultation on proposals designed to reform social services, including giving people more control over the care they received, and increased rights to assessments of their needs.
Source: Social Services (Wales) Bill: Consultation Document, Welsh Government
Links: Consultation document | Welsh Government press release | WRVS press release | Community Care report
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined the issue of how care should be arranged within European states' welfare policies in the context of an ageing population. Projections of population ageing, and concerns about the future ratio of workers to non-working people with care needs, had elevated care into an important policy concern for many European states, and on the level of the European Union.
Source: Umut Erel, 'Transnational care in Europe: changing formations of citizenship, family, and generation', Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society, Volume 19 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
The organization representing local authorities in England and Wales set out the issues that needed to be addressed in the forthcoming White Paper on the reform of social care. It called for a cap on the amount of risk that individuals were exposed to when planning for their care costs, and making the means-testing system fairer on pensioners who had some assets.
Source: Ripe for Reform: The sector agrees, now the public expects – A guide to the care and support white paper, Local Government Association
Links: Report | LGA press release
Date: 2012-Mar
The Scottish Government published a Bill designed to make 'self-directed support' a mainstream choice for people receiving social care. People would be given the right to have an individual budget and greater control over how it was spent: it could be taken as a cash payment, allocated to a provider chosen by the user, used by the local council to arrange a service, or used to fund a mix of these options.
Source: Social Care (Self-directed Support) (Scotland) Bill, Scottish Government, TSO
Links: Bill | Explanatory notes | Policy memorandum | Impact assessment | Scottish Government press release | CCPS press release | Community Care report
Date: 2012-Mar
A study identified issues that were important to people who used adult social services in England, including funding, public spending cuts, hostility towards disabled people, and user involvement; discussed proposed changes, including funding, to the social care system; and made recommendations on the future of adult social care, based on the experiences of service users.
Source: Peter Beresford and Eamon Andrews, Caring for Our Future: What Service Users Say, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2012-Mar
A report by a committee of MPs said that care services for older people in England were still highly fragmented, despite successive governments' commitment to integration. At the same time levels of adult social care funding were inadequate, with a rising funding gap between need and resource, and there was a need to rebalance public spending on older people away from acute hospital care towards preventive health and social care in the community. The report called on the government to place a duty on local councils and the proposed new National Health Service clinical commissioning groups to create a single commissioning process for older people's health, care, and housing, pooling all public resources, with a single accountable officer.
Source: Social Care, Fourteenth Report (Session 2010-12), HC 1583, House of Commons Health Select Committee, TSO
Links: Report | Oral and written evidence | ADASS press release | Alzheimers Society press release | Carers UK press release | CSJ press release | JRF press release | Kings Fund press release | LGA press release | NHS Confederation press release | NPC press release | RCN press release | RCP press release | Turning Point press release | UKHCA press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Feb
An article provided an overview of recent reforms to the social care system in England. The reforms would bring about some benefits, but their long-term impact was still very uncertain. The changing political and economic environment, and the inherent difficulties that reform suggested, indicated that these changes would be subject to significant differences in interpretation for some time.
Source: Simon Duffy, 'Personalisation in social care – what does it really mean?', Social Care and Neurodisability, Volume 2 Number 4
Links: Article
Date: 2012-Feb