A report by a committee of the National Assembly for Wales said that the approach to caring for older people needed to be re-examined. It called for a further reduction in the use of residential care as a default choice, and a shift in services towards more community-based options.
Source: Residential Care for Older People in Wales, Health and Social Care Committee, National Assembly for Wales
Links: Report | NAW press release | Alzheimers Society press release | OPCW press release | WLGA press release | WalesOnline report
Date: 2012-Dec
A study examined how risk, trust, and confidence shaped decision-making in caring and supportive relationships in an ageing society. It explored what helped or sustained people in local communities who offered help and support to others within their social network; and how society's capacity to support an ageing society could be strengthened.
Source: Gillian Dalley, Kenneth Gilhooly, Mary Gilhooly, Julie Barnett, Fernand Gobet, Priscilla Harries, Sarah Niblock, Mary Pat Sullivan, and Christina Victor, Risk, Trust and Relationships in an Ageing Society, Joseph Rowntree Foundation | RSA Action and Research Centre, Improving Decision-Making in the Care of Older People: Exploring the decision ecology, Joseph Rowntree Foundation |
Links: Report (1) | Summary | Report (2) | Summary
Date: 2012-Dec
An article examined the views of older adults who were receiving health and social care at the end of their lives on how services should be funded, and described their health-related expenditure. There was a gap between the health and social care system that older adults expected and what might be provided by a reformed welfare state at a time of financial stringencies. Participants expressed a belief in an earned entitlement to services funded from taxation, based on a broad sense of being a good citizen. Irrespective of social background, older people felt that those who could afford to pay for social care should do so. The sale of assets and the use of children's inheritance to fund care were widely perceived as unjust. The costs of living with illness were a burden, and families were filling many of the gaps left by welfare provision. People who had worked in low-wage occupations were most concerned to justify their acceptance of services, and distance themselves from what they described as welfare 'spongers' or 'layabouts.'
Source: Barbara Hanratty, Elizabeth Lowson, Louise Holmes, Gunn Grande, Julia Addington-Hall, Sheila Payne, and Jane Seymour, 'Funding health and social services for older people – a qualitative study of care recipients in the last year of life', Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, Volume 105 Issue 5
Links: Article | RSM press release
Date: 2012-Dec
A report set out what the European Union was doing to encourage active ageing.
Source: The EU Contribution to Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations, European Commission
Links: Report | European Commission press release
Date: 2012-Nov
A report evaluated the Ageing Well programme, which provided sector-led support for local authorities in England to assist them in meeting the challenges of an ageing population.
Source: Victoria Harkness, Daniel Cameron, Jerry Latter, Mohammed Ravat, and Lauren Bridges, Preparing for an Ageing Society: Evaluating the Ageing Well programme Parts 1 and 2, Research Report 807, Department for Work and Pensions
Date: 2012-Nov
An article examined the process of conducting cross-national qualitative research into the long-term care of older people in Europe.
Source: Henglien Lisa Chen, 'Cross-national qualitative research into the long-term care of older people: some reflections on method and methodology', European Journal of Social Work, Volume 15 Issue 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Nov
A think-tank paper examined options for households and the state in paying for ageing – including spending on health, state pensions, and long-term care costs. It made a series of recommendations for policy-makers, including: public spending on older people needed a cross-departmental 'holistic review'; fiscal policy-making should not be allowed to crowd out sensible policies on ageing; and an Office for Evidence on Prevention should be created to promote preventative age-related strategies. Long-term decisions were needed immediately: fixing a strategy for paying for ageing could no longer be deferred, and older households deserved clarity.
Source: James Lloyd, Paying for Ageing: Decision time for households and the state, Strategic Society Centre
Date: 2012-Nov
An article examined independence in later life and its relations with mobility. Older adults were inadvertently complicit in the perpetuation of the connotations of dependency in later life with passivity, burden, and undesirability.
Source: Tim Schwanen, David Banister, and Ann Bowling, 'Independence and mobility in later life', Geoforum, Volume 43 Issue 6
Links: Abstract
>Date: 2012-Nov
A study examined how people in England used publicly funded health and social care services during the previous months of their lives. It said that social care might prevent the need for hospital admission.
Source: Theo Georghiou, Sian Davies, Alisha Davies, and Martin Bardsley, Understanding Patterns of Health and Social Care at the End of Life, Nuffield Trust
Links: Report | Summary | Nuffield Trust press release | Labour Party press release | Marie Curie press release | RCN press release | Community Care report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Oct
A study examined how to promote quality of life for older people in care homes. Positive relationships enabled staff to listen to older people, gain insights into individual needs, and facilitate greater voice, choice, and control. Care home providers and statutory agencies should consider how their attitudes, practices, and policies could create pressure and unnecessary paperwork that ultimately reduced the capacity of care homes to respond to the needs of older people. Negative stereotypes of care homes had an impact on the confidence of staff and managers.
Source: Tom Owen and Julienne Meyer (with Michelle Cornell, Penny Dudman, Zara Ferreira, Sally Hamilton, John Moore, and Jane Wallis), My Home Life: Promoting quality of life in care homes, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2012-Oct
A report examined local councils' approaches to universal and open-access support for older people whose needs did not meet the eligibility threshold for publicly financed adult social care. The study examined: existing barriers to universal support; potential levers for improvement; and gaps in knowledge and understanding that impeded appropriate development.
Source: Melanie Henwood, Beyond Eligibility: Universal and open access support and social care, Age UK
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Oct
An article examined key trends over the previous 20 years in residential and community care for older people in England, Finland, and Australia. It investigated the extent of 'de-institutionalization', 'privatization', and 'individualization'. The concepts of collective and individual 'voice' and 'choice' were used to interrogate the roles of collective and individual actors, older people, and carers, in influencing policy formulation. It identified the greater influence of claims-making by family carers, who provided the informal bastion of formal care services in the push to de-institutionalization, in comparison with the collective and individual voices of older people as 'service users'.
Source: Sue Yeandle, Teppo Kroger, and Bettina Cass, 'Voice and choice for users and carers? Developments in patterns of care for older people in Australia, England and Finland', Journal of European Social Policy, Volume 22 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Sep
A paper examined the combined effects of population ageing and changes in long-term care policy on the housing market. The trend away from institutional provision towards care at home would maintain the level of housing demand above what it would otherwise be. It would also have distributional consequences, with individuals less likely to reduce their housing equity to pay for institutional care, which in turn would increase the value of their bequests. Household formation effects involving those requiring long-term care were relatively weak and unlikely to significantly offset the effects of this policy shift on the housing market and on the distribution of wealth.
Source: David Bell and Alasdair Rutherford, Long-Term Care and the Housing Market, Discussion Paper 2012-13, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Sep
An article examined how the employment of migrant care workers in both the familial provision of care and the formal provision of care services for older people was shaped, first, by the marketization of care and, second, by immigration controls. The analysis drew on data on the employment of migrant care workers by families in Italy and by providers of residential and home care services in the United Kingdom. Marketization processes and immigration controls had contributed to the employment of migrant workers across so-called informal/formal types of care provision, and irregular/regular types of care work and migration. Although the institutional contexts in which migrant care labour was located might differ, converging outcomes were evident regarding the structural positioning of migrant workers within the provision of care for older people.
Source: Isabel Shutes and Carlos Chiatti, 'Migrant labour and the marketisation of care for older people: the employment of migrant care workers by families and service providers', Journal of European Social Policy, Volume 22 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Sep
A study examined the dynamics of change experienced by Belgium, England, Germany, and Italy in their home care sectors, focusing on the process of 'marketization'.
Source: Florence Degavre and Marthe Nyssens (eds), Care Regimes on the Move: Comparing home care for dependent older people in Belgium, England, Germany and Italy, Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche Travail, Etat et Societe, (Universite Catholique de Louvain, Charleroi, Belgium)
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Sep
A report (by an official advisory body) said that services for older people in rural areas needed to be 'rural proofed' to help prevent more older people becoming isolated.
Source: Social Isolation Experienced by Older People in Rural Communities, Commission for Rural Communities
Links: Report | Summary | Newcastle University press release
Date: 2012-Sep
The older people's watchdog for Wales said that the majority of older people receiving home care in Wales, around 80 per cent, reported being very positive about the care that they received. But a sizeable minority, 20 per cent, said that good quality care was inconsistent or even non-existent.
Source: My Home, My Care, My Voice: Older people's experiences of home care in Wales, Older People's Commission for Wales
Links: Report | OPCW press release | UKHCA press release
Date: 2012-Sep
An article examined the proportion of older people in England who accessed hospital and social care services. Residents of care homes tended to use hospitals less frequently than people receiving home care.
Source: Martin Bardsley, Theo Georghiou, Ludovic Chassin, Geraint Lewis, Adam Steventon, and Jennifer Dixon, 'Overlap of hospital use and social care in older people in England', Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, Volume 17 Number 3
Links: Article | Abstract | Nuffield Trust press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Jul
An article examined whether the legal position on long-term care for older people in England and Scotland was potentially inconsistent with the United Kingdom's obligations in European Union law.
Source: Tamara Hervey, Abigail Stark, Alison Dawson, Jose-Luis Fernandez, Tihana Matosevic, and David McDaid, 'Long-term care for older people and EU law: the position in England and Scotland', Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, Volume 34 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jul
A report said that there had been limited systematic focus in policy-making on supporting life transitions holistically; and that there was scope to use National Service Programmes as a tool to address the most common ones, particularly those faced by young people, new employees, new parents, and retirees. It highlighted the potential to create a National Retirement Service, led by retirees, for retirees – a service designed to assist those entering retirement with the support of their employers and the state, to plan for the future, build self-help networks, and engender trust across generations.
Source: Alison Hulme and Nat Wei, Next Steps: Life transitions and retirement in the 21st century, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Links: Report | Gulbenkian press release | NIACE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2012-Jul
An article examined policy measures in European countries relating to the care of older people, and their relationship with family care arrangements. The policy measures had been designed to support family carers in various ways, with the common objective of giving them the flexibility they needed in the organization of care arrangements.
Source: Blanche Le Bihan and Claude Martin, 'Diversification of care policy measures supporting older people: towards greater flexibility for carers?', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 9 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jun
An independent commission said that leaders in the health and social care sector needed to drive a 'major cultural shift' to tackle the underlying causes of poor and undignified care of older people in care homes and hospitals in England. Alongside the consistent application of good practice and the rooting out of poor care, a major change was needed in the way the system thought about dignity, to ensure that care was person-centred rather than task-focused. It was necessary to work with older people to shape services around their needs; and to listen to patients and residents – and their families, carers, and advocates – in order to continually improve dignity in care. The report urged the government to ensure that every person receiving care was protected under human rights legislation.
Source: Commission on Dignity in Care for Older People, Delivering Dignity: Securing dignity in care for older people in hospitals and care homes, NHS Confederation/Local Government Association/Age UK
Links: Report | NHS Confederation press release | LGA press release | BGS press release | PHSO press release | Skills for Care press release | Community Care report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined the relationship between regulators' ratings of care homes for older people in England and residents' quality-of-life outcomes.
Source: Ann Netten, Birgit Trukeschitz, Julie Beadle-Brown, Julien Forder, Ann-Marie Towers, and Elizabeth Welch, 'Quality of life outcomes for residents and quality ratings of care homes: is there a relationship?', Age and Ageing, Volume 41 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined the interactions between public support for long-term care for elderly people in Europe and the caring function of families. Policy measures that had been introduced since the 1990s had aimed to support family carers in various ways, with the common objective of giving them the flexibility they needed in the organization of care arrangements, combining various resources (formal professional care, unpaid informal care, semi-formal care). Different patterns of flexibility could be identified according to the regulation of the policy measures.
Source: Blanche Le Bihan and Claude Martin, 'Diversification of care policy measures supporting older people: towards greater flexibility for carers?', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 9 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jun
Date: 2012-Jun
Date: 2012-Jun
Date: 2012-Jun
An article examined how both the 'choice' agenda and devolution had affected welfare services for people over state retirement age. It also considered the extent to which a more consumerist approach to public services might redress or increase later-life inequalities. For many people over state retirement age, the prospect of becoming a 'consumer' of public services was difficult and unwelcome.
Source: Suzanne Moffatt , Paul Higgs, Kirstein Rummery, and Ian Rees Jones, 'Choice, consumerism and devolution: growing old in the welfare state(s) of Scotland, Wales and England', Ageing and Society, Volume 32 Issue 5
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
An article examined how long-term care systems, and in particular the incorporation of needs-based entitlements to care services or benefits, influenced formal and informal care utilization dynamics in Europe. In all countries, formal and informal care were more often complements than substitutes. The likelihood of becoming a formal or informal care user varied significantly between countries. In the Scandinavian countries and in several continental European countries with needs-based entitlements, the transition to formal care was strongly related to informal support being or becoming unavailable. There was little evidence of country differences in the effect of health variables on the transition to formal care. Although rates of formal care utilization continued to differ considerably between European countries, formal care allocation practices were not very dissimilar across northern and continental European welfare states: there was evidence for all countries of targeting of older persons living alone and of the most care-dependent older people.
Source: Joanna Geerts and Karel Van den Bosch, 'Transitions in formal and informal care utilisation amongst older Europeans: the impact of national contexts', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 9 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
An article examined the association between welfare state policies and the gendered organization of intergenerational support to older parents in Europe. Daughters provided somewhat more sporadic and much more intensive support than sons throughout Europe. Although about half of all children who sporadically supported a parent were men, this applied to only 1 out of 4 children who provided intensive support. Legal obligations were positively associated with daughters' likelihood of giving intensive support to parents, but did not affect the likelihood of sons doing so. Cash-for-care schemes were also accompanied by a more unequal distribution of involvement in intensive support at the expense of women. Social services, in contrast, were linked to a lower involvement of daughters in intensive support. The results suggested that welfare states could both preserve or reduce gender inequality in intergenerational support depending on specific arrangements.
Source: Tina Schmid, Martina Brandt and Klaus Haberkern,, 'Gendered support to older parents: do welfare states matter?', European Journal of Ageing, Volume 9 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A report said that 'social productivity' could provide a helpful framework for considering how to construct sustainable social care services for older people. These services had never fallen squarely within the Beveridge-derived welfare model – the range of needs described under the heading of 'social care' remained too diverse, too social, and too intimate to sit neatly within a welfare model that was entirely publicly provided and publicly funded, even if financial resources were more plentiful. A 'Big Society' analysis was strong in recognizing the innately social aspect of social care,: but weak when it came to considering the implications for public policy. This was where social productivity might be more valuable as an operating framework for social care reform and innovation.
Source: Sally-Marie Bamford and Craig Berry, Long Term Care for Older People, Social Productivity and the Big Society : The case of dementia, 2020 Public Services Hub
Notes: 'Social productivity' refers to public services that act as social catalysts supporting and nurturing communities, and delivering public services in partnership with the people that needed them.
Date: 2012-Apr
An article examined the needs and expectations of older people and their carers from eight different migrant communities, and of the white majority. Whether and how older migrants knowledge systems informed their expectations of care and support should be objects of investigation rather than taken for granted, as implied in some literature on culturally sensitive practices.
Source: Gianfranco Giuntoli and Mima Cattan, 'The experiences and expectations of care and support among older migrants in the UK', European Journal of Social Work, Volume 15 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined legal and policy issues in relation to 'advance directives' within European healthcare – written or oral statements intended to govern healthcare decision-making for their authors, should they lose decision-making capacity in the future.
Source: Tom Goffin, 'Advance directives as an instrument in an ageing Europe', European Journal of Health Law, Volume 19 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined informal and formal home-care use among older adults in European countries. Older adults were more likely to receive informal care only in countries with fewer home-based services, less residential care, more informal care support, and more women working full time. The incorporation of societal determinants rather than commonly used welfare state classifications resulted in a better understanding of the conditions that determined older adults' care use.
Source: Bianca Suanet, Marjolein Broese Van Groenou, and Theo Van Tilburg, 'Informal and formal home-care use among older adults in Europe: can cross-national differences be explained by societal context and composition?', Ageing and Society, Volume 32 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Mar
A report published by an organization representing social services directors said that it was doubtful whether further 'top-down' changes in the National Health Service (as proposed by the coalition government) would promote the aim of better integration between health and social services for elderly people. It added that the existing system of personal budgets in social care was not flexible enough to give people choice and control over their care, and that safeguarding concerns also needed to be addressed.
Source: The Case for Tomorrow: Facing the Beyond, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services
Links: Report | ADASS press release | Community Care report | Telegraph report
Date: 2012-Mar
A draft commission report set out a series of recommendations for hospitals and care homes to help them tackle the underlying causes of undignified care of older people. The criteria used for selecting and appraising staff should give the same emphasis to their assessed values and capacity to engage with older people as to their formal qualifications.
Source: Commission on Dignity in Care for Older People, Delivering Dignity: Securing dignity in care for older people in hospitals and care homes – A report for consultation, NHS Confederation/Local Government Association/Age UK
Links: Report | NHS Confederation press release | Alzheimers Society press release | BASW press release | BGS press release | GMC press release | Labour Party press release | LGA press release | NCPC press release | RCN press release | RCP press release | Community Care report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2012-Feb
A new book examined the rise of welfare markets in western societies, focusing on old age provision (both retirement provision and elderly care). It considered whether pension and care systems were converging under the influence of globalization – with marketization being a key phenomenon – and to what extent this was creating a transnational culture of welfare markets.
Source: Ingo Bode, The Culture of Welfare Markets: The international recasting of pension and care systems, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Feb
A report said that millions of people in their late 40s and 50s were facing a 'miserable' retirement – living in poor health for longer, residing in unsuitable housing, and dying without adequate care and support. It called for a long-term government vision for older people, and for greater partnership and innovative working across health, social care, and housing.
Source: A 2030 Vision: Building communities and environments to support people to live well and die well, National Care Forum/National Council for Palliative Care
Links: NCF press release | NCPC press release
Date: 2012-Feb
A new book examined ways in which social work practice focused on social inclusion could achieve a high quality of life for all older people – allowing them to influence the space they lived in, the quality of care that they needed, and the support they received at the end of life.
Source: Malcolm Payne, Citizenship Social Work with Older People, Policy Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2012-Feb
A study found that encouraging older people to apply for smart cards and passes online could save money and improve services. Older people could also became more active and engaged in their communities by using smart cards to extend the range of services and concessions that they were entitled to.
Source: Alice Mowlam, Sally Bridges, Valdeep Gill, Andy MacGregor, Jude Ranasinghe, and Elizabeth Tideswell, Active at 60: Local evaluation research – Final report, Research Report 786, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Report | Summary | DWP press release
Date: 2012-Jan
A report said that spending on older people's social care in England in 2011-12 would fall £500 million short of even maintaining the 'inadequate' levels of provision in place when the coalition government had come to power in 2010. Funding for frontline services had not been protected, and additional money from the National Health Service had not filled the gap.
Source: Care in Crisis 2012, Age UK
Links: Report | Age UK press release | Alzheimers Society press release | BBC report | Community Care report
Date: 2012-Jan
