In our video this month Tom Lloyd Goodwin of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), tells us why he thinks why adult social care needs a Social Guarantee.

Adult Social Care and the Social Guarantee

Many of us need - or will certainly one day need - support to maintain our independence, dignity and control. Like other essential services, it’s right that care services should be genuinely accessible and affordable for everyone who needs them. But the picture for adult social care in England is one of a broken system stretched beyond its limits. There’s been a huge shift from state to private ownership of care institutions. Introducing market rules was supposed to improve quality and keep costs down. But that hasn’t happened.

Instead, commercial imperatives have squeezed standards and exploited care workers, while a decade of public spending cuts has left the service perilously under-funded.

Today, demand for care is rising, but low pay and poor conditions are formidable barriers to recruitment and retention of staff. Increasing numbers of people are unable to access the care they need. Provider organisations are at risk of collapse. The government makes positive noises about new investment, but there are few signs that this will be anything other than woefully inadequate.

More secure and generous funding is essential. At the same time, different structures of ownership could unlock revenues currently spent on shareholder dividends, for investment in improving service quality as well as the pay and conditions of care workers.

In his video, Tom points to some excellent examples of good practice. Halton on Merseyside has recently ‘in-sourced’ nursing and residential care homes, bringing them back under local authority control to avoid the many pitfalls of contracting out to the private sector. But public ownership is not the only answer. What matters just as much is how creative authorities can be in commissioning social care services that meet local needs from a range of non-state organisations.

The London Borough of Newham has commissioned a Dementia Cafe from a local social enterprise. Wigan has introduced a system of ‘social licensing’ to ensure that care homes are provided only by locally-based, socially productive businesses that pay the real living wage.

Local initiatives like these can inspire others and begin to transform the system, with local authorities commissioning services from a range of public interest organisations, including community businesses, social enterprises and co-operatives - all committed to a shared set of public interest obligations. However, this can only work if the government at Westminster makes funds available to local authorities that are genuinely sufficient to provide this essential service.

What have we been doing at the Social Guarantee? 

 The Social Guarantee Discussion Papers  

What do we mean when we talk about universalism? In the first of our new Social Guarantee Discussion Papers - a series of short papers exploring some of the main features of the SG - Anna Coote discusses universalism, universal basic services and the rationale for realising universal access to life’s essentials.  

Recommended reading
 

With #COP26 focusing minds on the climate emergency, here are two publications that highlight the links between the Social Guarantee and transition to a fair and sustainable future: 
 

Anna Coote contributed to 1.5-degree Lifestyles: Towards a Fair Consumption Space for all, the second major report from The Hot or Cool Institute, in partnership with the Club of Rome and other leading international organisations. Chapter 6 is on universal services and a Social Guarantee – and the whole report is a mine of useful information and analysis.     

Maeve Cohen - Project Lead at the Social Guarantee - authored this paper for the Women’s Budget Group on reimagining communities to enable a low-carbon, gender equal future. 

Blogs 

Universal Basic Services have become a hot topic in the run-up to next year’s South Korean presidential election - Eun Kyung Kim reports on how this has happened, and what we might be able to learn from experience in her country. 

Meanwhile, Professor Ian Gough discussed the role that public services can play on the road to Net Zero - and  how the NHS is already making significant progress.  

Maeve Cohen also wrote about Decarbonising Public Services in response to this excellent report from Unison. 

Events 

The Women’s Budget Group is a vital organisation, providing in-depth analysis of the impact of policy on women, and we were pleased to be part of this webinar on revitalising local communities for people and for the planet across the UK.  
 

Advocacy 

Green New Deal.  On 19th October, a Green New Deal Bill was tabled as an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons. We were glad to be consulted on this Bill - you can see the motion here and we look forward to further developments on this front. 

Social Security in Wales.  On 3 November, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Welsh Affairs took evidence on the prospect of a ‘basic income’ trial in Wales.  Anna Coote gave evidence on the Social Guarantee, arguing that universal services represent ‘in-kind’ benefits that are crucial for ensuring universal access to life’s essentials. You can view the session here.