From family to personal responsibility: the challenges for care of the elderly in England

Abstract

The paper discusses recent legal and policy developments in relation to the provision of adult social care in England, in particular the Law Commission's 2011 proposals now reflected in 2012 Care and Support Bill and the recommendations from the Dilnot Enquiry in 2011. It reflects on the ways in which responsibilities in relation to caring among and for older citizens are understood and distributed within the present system of social care in order to draw out the implications for these proposals. It highlights the challenges raised by demographic changes that result from an increasingly ageing society and the enduring assumptions that women will continue to undertake unpaid care although they are now substantially engaged in paid labour markets. It considers more broadly the extent to which the impact of caring particularly for the elderly is recognised within family, labour and social welfare law. It reviews the growing pollcy assumption that individuals are expected to plan for their own care in later life and that their needs will be met through the exercise of individual choice in a care market. It concludes by suggesting an alternative basis for policy development.

Keywords:

• elderly
• adult social care
• Dilnot Enquiry
• Law Commission 2011 Report 326

Notes

1. Despite the number of women working in war time, Beveridge designed the welfare settlement on the inter-war presumption of 10%t in full-time work and the assumption that women would be married and supported by men (Lewis 2000, p. 85).

2. The Law Commission's approach is reflected in the Government's white paper (DH 2012) and the accompanying draft Care and Support Bill.

3. The Care Standards Act 2000 established a framework for the oversight of bodies providing social care.

4. Evidence provided to the House of Commons Select Committee by Pickard, a Research Fellow at the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU), drawing on work undertaken for the Cabinet Office and the DH.