Whilst listening to some of the UK government’s arguments this week about why they should make changes to the UK’s two child limit on child benefits and make changes to older people’s eligibility for winter fuel payments, I was struck by a comment from one of the government’s senior leadership team. they seemed to be suggesting that it wasn’t worth doing anything about either of these things as there weren’t any votes in it for them. This brought me to a sudden realisation that that’s one of the key reasons why over the last 40 years very little has been done to improve, develop or support people who draw on care and support through social care. Why would they want to improve any of these services or support models when there aren’t any votes in it?
Now that might seem like a harsh thing to say but if you look at a whole range of different surveys about what is important to people across the United Kingdom in terms of what influences how they vote, social care and support for people who draw on social care support does not feature anywhere on any of those lists of priorities.
I wonder if some of this lack of priority is due to a general sense amongst the public that social care is something that they can access through the national healthcare system and subsequently it gets muddled up with the NHS in people’s thinking. As well as this, much of social care happens out of sight and out of mind and therefore it’s not on the list of important things that trouble voters in the United Kingdom (unless they themselves or a member of their family need to draw on it).
I’d also suggest that this isn’t just a United Kingdom challenge. I’m sure if you looked at countries across the world, social care wouldn’t feature amongst the priorities of most voters.
So what can be done to change this narrative? I think there’s a lot more work that needs to be done around what social care is and what it isn’t. Maybe we need a catchphrase that goes something along the lines of
‘Social Care, It’s not available on the NHS.’
Or
Social Care, you might not think we’re important, but one day you’ll change your mind.’
Or
‘Social Care, we’re not dispossessed benefit scroungers at the margins of society.’
I give these examples as they are things I have heard said over the years about social care, about people who draw on care and support and about people that work in social care.
In the mainstream media, there only seem to be three versions of social care that are ever discussed.
The first, is the fluffy joyous wonderful version about the things that people have done to raise money to support a person or people that are drawing on care and support from social care.
The second, is the evil, nasty version about bad social care workers and the nasty abusive things that they do to people who draw on care and support from social care.
The third, is the version that if only social care was good at its job, then our wonderful NHS would be perfect.
The reality is that there are a lot of amazing and fantastic people and organisations working in the world of social care. The reality is that most of the time when we try to promote this and campaign around this, we’re just talking to ourselves. Even the politicians, their colleagues and other organisations such as health, housing and the justice system aren’t interested in listening to us or to what we have to say unless it directly impacts on them.
I know how tiring it can be to be the only social care person in the room, holding their hand up and trying desperately to be heard when asking ‘and what about social care?’. So what can we do to change some of this narrative.
We need to broaden the range of voices that get to be heard. This doesn’t mean that the current voices need to be quieter. We just need to extend the range of voices heard – particularly in the mainstream media. We could do this by instigating media training (and as part of this social media training) to a wider group of people across the sector. Not just senior leaders but also the inspirational people being supported by social care and the inspirational people working directly with them. There are many great stories to tell, but many of these people don’t realise that they have a great story to tell.
We need to get better at explaining why social care isn’t a charity case, isn’t evil and isn’t the reason the NHS has problems.
We must shout louder about how austerity has shaken social care to its core and how more austerity will blow up the fragments that remain.
Above all else we need to show that social care is an essential service. It is as essential as health, emergency services, utilities and public infrastructure, food and essential retail, education and childcare and government and public service. Without social care, none of these essential services could function.
Without social care our health system would collapse, our emergency services would be overwhelmed, our utilities and public infrastructure would be far less adaptable to the needs of vulnerable people, essential retail would lose millions of customers who spend most of their money on essential supplies, our education and childcare services would be less able to support young people who have family members with social care needs. Without social care, our government and public service infrastructure would have to find other ways to support people who draw on care and support – thus inventing social care all over again.
At the moment I’m reading a book about how civilisations collapse. Two of the things that stand out for me are that a civilisation collapses when money gets concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority of the population, and when the system of social support that enables the majority of the population to function is left to rot in plain sight.
It feels to me as if we are approaching a tipping point in a number of countries around the world and we have a choice. Do we want our way of life to collapse because we’re not investing properly in social care support? Or do we want to invest in social care and a way of life that values everyone and that enables and empowers each of us, thus contributing to an economy that works for all?
If we do, getting social care right is a fundamental part of bringing us back from the brink.
And yes, there are votes in social care to be won. Anyone in power who doesn’t recognise that has spent too much time listening to the wrong people.
Jim Thomas
June 2025
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