Promises, promises

On a sunny summer morning on the steps of 10 Downing Street in 2019, newly elected Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that he would “fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared to give every older person the dignity and security they deserve. My job,” he said, “is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care” (HM Government, 2019). It was to be over two years later before a plan, and then a very early-stage plan, was to materialise. Now rewind to 1997 and Brighton where a fresh-faced newly elected Prime Minister Tony Blair told his party conference that “I don’t want [our children] brought up in a country where the only way pensioners can get long-term care is by selling their home” (Blair, 1997). It is telling that both prime ministers, separated by 22 years and big political differences, both defined the ‘problem’ of social care as being about older people – and, more precisely, older people having to sell their homes to pay for care. Arguably, this narrow and distorted view has unhelpfully channelled much of the political debate down a particular route. It has contributed to a legacy of neglect and indifference to what is one of the most pressing domestic policy challenges of our time.

In truth, although older people – defined in this book as aged 65 and over (though whether 65 is really that old any more is another matter) – are the biggest group of people who use council-funded social care, the number has been falling in recent years, despite our ageing population. At the same time, more working-age people, usually with disabilities or other kinds of need, are getting support. They now account for almost a half of what councils spend on social care.