Care for one another

The Tories were right to try to make social care an issue in the general election, even if they chose such a wretchedly unpopular policy to deal with it. As the Care Quality Commission’s latest report shows, the system in England is “straining at the seams” – just about managing for the moment, but could collapse in the future. The quality of social care appears to be holding up (78 per cent of adult services were rated good) but the number of elderly patients in serious need is growing.

The problem, of course, is being passed on to hospitals. That means long queues in A&E and beds being used by people who ought to be receiving professional care elsewhere. This does not bode well for winter as the NHS braces itself for its annual crisis. The Government has to address the lack of flexibility in the health service – the difficulty of finding a GP out of hours, for example, which forces people to show up at casualty – and the gaps in social care funding in local authorities. But, most of all, it needs to address the systemic challenges facing an ageing population.

One is fostering a culture of personal responsibility. Many Britons do look after themselves, but obesity and a sedentary lifestyle do not make for a comfortable old age, and increasingly it is the state picking up the bill. And the Tories have to come up with a new financing mechanism that can rebalance the costs of social care away from the taxpayer and more towards individuals who can afford it. That means encouraging pensions and old age insurance, and supporting carers. The family remains the best welfare programme of all.