Social Care is Failing..

... this is according to some Age UK research which has just been published and reported in the Guardian today.

This isn't news to me and probably isn't news to any of you either. It's painfully obvious to anyone who has been involved with the sector in recent years that things need to change.

In fact my, and I'm sure other peoples main opposition to Individual budgets, was that for all the positives around the policy it never dealt with the core issue which was lack of funds - which as the article points too is really the key issue.

It seems that on this issue (and not dissimilar to university funding) there have so far only been sticking plaster soloutions; Politicians ducking out of the big debates. These debates are chiefly who pays and how? It seems that paying for anything from general taxation is out of vogue so we have what I call the 'making a contribution' society - that is responsibility for social risks (i.e poor health; unemployment etc) being increasingly placed on inividuals.

Some time ago a kind of insurance model was mooted for social care this it seems has dissapeared from the agenda, but as the Age UK research shows things need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

The Military Covenant

The relationship between the military and the welfare state has always been close. In fact its closer than close - the Welfare state owes it's existence to what we are now beginning to term 'the military covenant'. Historians of social policy will tell you that out of the first world war emerged one of the first real attempts made by the state to provide mass housing fit for the troops returning from the trenches; the 'Homes fit For Heroes' scheme - the snappy giving away the political currency it was hoped the project would bestow on its sponsors. Ultimately 'Homes fit for Heroes' was criticised along with other attempts at post-war social reform for not going far enough and It was not until the destruction reaped by a second global conflict, world war two, that Western governments instituted much more ambitious plans, the full-blown welfare-state a conscious and determined effort to build a 'new Jerusalem' a society worthy of the sacrifices made in its name.

Gradually the post-war settlement of 1945 has been eroded, weathered by the harsh winds of time. The idea of the state guaranteeing social rights to its citizens has been overturned to the point where more and more individuals are asked to make a more of a contribution whether this is an 18 year old student being asked to pay £9k a year to cover fees or an 88 year old grandmother being forced to sell her home to pay for the cost of residential care. It is in these terms which the current debates around instituting the military covenant into law are couched; Priority in housing, priority in NHS treatment. Gone is the commitment to universal citizenship and universal social rights, gone is the commitment to honour sacrifice by building a worthy society. No one would deny troops who have made so many sacrifices the best medical treatment, decent housing, or any other social right but we must not forget these are rights which extend to all and to which others can justly make claims to; the firefighter, the nurse, the teacher, the mother. Does a soldier returning from conflict wish to receive the very best whilst watching their parents receive an appalling level of care from an underfunded system? Only by recognising this need to create a fairer and more just society for all as we did in 1945 do we properly honour their sacrifice.

Just how well thought through is Government policy?

Just how well is policy thought out. If the current Tuition fee debacle is anything to go by then the answer has to be very badly if at all.

Just take one paragraph from the guardian today which tellingly says:

The number of universities declaring that they wish to charge students the highest amount from next year has caught ministers by surprise, with the majority of institutions planning to charge more than £7,500 a year.

Now, I clearly remember government representatives on television stating that there would be a wide range in terms of fees charged by institutions and that students would be able to then make a choice from this range. Let me just say that the commodification of education is not something I condone at all, in fact it is something I vigourously oppose, but also worryingly it seems that if ministers have got it this wrong on what is comparitively a rather simple market to analyse then what does this say about the basis of policy in other areas such as around social care a much more complex entity.

And the reason why universities are charging high fees... It's because they know demand will still be there even if they charge students extortionate rates. Why? Because university still represents chasing the dream to most young people. It is still seen as virtually the only the route to a career, home-ownership and the middle class. Universities know, even if ministers don't that with few alternatives, people will be prepared to pay for this dream.

I told you so

Well, it's been an interesting year in politics and social policy. There would have been few prizes on offer for the prediction that Cameron would be PM, but as head of a Con-Dem coalition??

Before writing this I re-visited the predictions I offered last year to see if I could produce a scorecard. Unfortunately I seem to have been far too vauge and long-term - more personalisation was one of my conclusions this time a year ago. Well, yes probably and being a long-term trend it will probably continue. So I award myself null points for that one.

I'm hoping to do better with my 2011 predictions, or rather one prediction. In a sense I'm cheating because it has already happened. The stories are finally beginning to appear linking cuts with their less than desierable outcomes.

So far we have had the ideological sell. Cuts need to have been made we have been told and we seem for the most part to have bought it. For the Government this was the easy part as time is needed reveal the consequences of these decisions. This is now beginning with the Guardian reporting that a £609 000 saving from scrapping a flu awareness campaign has now been reversed as it has been decided in the midst of a flu ourtbreak that it was probably not the best idea.

Another piece in the paper carries a warning from a campaigner, Lucy Cope of Mothers Against Guns, that public spending cuts may result in an "era of terror". Rather a chilling prediction, but one which firmly holds the Government to account. Like the Health Secretary is finding out to his cost now; if individual ministerial decisions to cut funding can be linked to a negative event or set of outcomes the result is highly politically damaging.

The government is sure to be seeing many more 'I told you so' moments in 2011