“This is one of the big policy discussions we have for the next parliament” stated Minister for Life Sciences at the Department of Health, George Freeman MP.
The UK’s extraordinary advances in life expectancy was a testament to the incredible progress in health care, he said, but this had created huge “pressures of success” on society. This did however present an enormous opportunity to transform later life into something people looked forward to, encouraged Mr Freeman.
The minister said a “totally different view of care and care homes” was needed for older citizens. He called for “more imaginative” planning that included senior citizens in conceptions of what a vibrant community looked like.
Mr Freeman added that dementia, and support for those with dementia, also had to form a central focus. He welcomed how the stigma attached to both the term and the condition had reduced in recent years, with people now “talking about dementia in a different way”.
The most difficult question was how all of this would be funded, cautioned Mr Freeman.
Shifting the cost to the next generation was an idea the minister was not comfortable with, saying: “I don’t think it’s fair to expect the taxpayers of tomorrow… to finance the costs of our expectations.”
Independent Age’s chief executive Janet Morrison said it was time for people to start being honest about how care services would be funded. “We will all have to pay more” she said, and a more honest public dialogue around this was crucial.
“I think we are all woefully underprepared for ageing”, she stated, and this was fundamentally “irresponsible”.
Independent Age saw “a lot of shock and horror” from older people seeking advice from the charity on what services were available for older people’s care, Morrison explained, as well as worry about the safety and consistency of care services.
The social care system was already “creaking” and shortfalls in services were only going to get worse, she warned. There was strong public understanding about how valuable the NHS was, Morrison said, but far less appreciation for the importance of social care as a frontline service.
“This is not a system that any of us should be proud of” she stated, and it would not improve without serious attention.
Fazilet Hadi, managing director at RNIB, emphasised how prevention, social support for those living in older age were crucial. If increased care was properly funded, she argued, savings would be made from the preventative effects of older people not having accidents and then having to use health care services.
Citing work done by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, Hadi explained that “people were losing their sight from treatable conditions as a result of delays in getting treatment caused by capacity challenges. “That is just ridiculous” she said, and was costing the taxpayer.
Columnist at the Guardian, Rafael Behr noted how Sajid Javid MP, among others, had begun to suggest that children taking their parents back into their own homes later in life could and should become more common.
Mr Behr also attacked the “trench warfare” that had developed between the Labour and Conservative parties around health and care policy, saying it was unproductive and made any progress incredibly slow.
The left had to resist questioning the motives of all Tory plans for health care, and the right needed to avoid decrying all of Labour’s funding plans as being fundamentally communist in nature, he said.
Mr Freeman argued that the Conservatives as a party were beginning to warm to the mission of creating a modern and compassionate care service for older people.
“This party is rising to the challenge and rapidly wanting to be much more ambitious” he said.