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Read The Book
Before the welfare state
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The Greycoat Hospital
The Greycoat Hospital was once a workhouse. It has since been a hospital and a school. It has a very long welfare history. It has now been taken over by the state.
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The Greycoat Hospital
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Education and State
Licence
Stats
Poor care homes and private provision
The Financial Times today had a series of articles on standards in care homes for the elderly in Britain. The two most powerful things the articles sought to get across were that there were serious failings and that these were … Continue reading
Italian welfare – a curate’s egg
I have just returned from a visit to Italy where I spoke to quite a lot of interesting people about the welfare state there. I learned too much to put down a fraction of it here. But this, in ultra-brief, … Continue reading
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Care for the elderly, Education, Healthcare and the NHS, Housing, Parenting, Pensions, Tax and growth, Welfare benefits, Work on the new book
This is what politicians do with ‘a difficult one’
In 1997 the Labour Government made reforming the funding of social care a priority. A Royal Commission reported in 1999 and it took until 2009 for the Government to set out options for fundamental reform. The above is from an … Continue reading
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Care for the elderly
They do things differently in Japan
Japan is quite a lot different from Western countries in its welfare state. That makes it interesting for comparison. This is a link to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Pensions and here is the full … Continue reading
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Care for the elderly, Healthcare and the NHS, Housing, Pensions, Welfare benefits
“And while a generation ago only one in ten families in social housing had no-one working, this had risen to one in three by 2008-09.” The section on housing and social care in the Comprehensive Spending Review
I can announce that grant funding for social care will be increased by an additional £1 billion by the fourth year of the Spending Review. And a further £1 billion for social care will be provided through the NHS to … Continue reading
“Two thirds of the adult population are frightened by the prospect of having to move into a care home”. Hypocrisy, selfishness and vanity are reflected in the way we care for the old. Care homes made ‘normal’ by the welfare state.
Most people say they are “frightened” by the prospect of going to a care home. This emerged in a recent opinion poll: The ICM poll found: · 40% of Britons fear being lonely in their old age · Two thirds … Continue reading
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Care for the elderly
Should not children take prime responsibility when elderly parents can no longer look after themselves?
Tom Utley, commmenting on Sir Derek Wanless’ report in the Telegraph today, bravely puts forward a point of view on care for the elderly which is not often publicly expressed: One of Sir Derek’s ideas is that most means-testing should … Continue reading
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Care for the elderly
The elderly British appear to be among the most neglected in the world
Page 14 of “Social Care Needs and Outcomes – a background paper for the Wanless Social Care Review, July 2005″, shows that no country (out of a wide selection) has fewer people over 65 in institutions and no country has … Continue reading
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Care for the elderly
Wanless against means-testing
How interesting and encouraging that the Derek Wanless report on care for the elderly has – on the whole – come out against the current high level of means-testing. It is good to see resistance to the idea that there … Continue reading
Not ‘to the grave’
Many people remain committed to the NHS, I believe, because they think “if I get seriously ill at any time in my life, I will be looked after and it will be free”. In their hearts, they may think the … Continue reading
Posted by James Bartholomew
Indexed in Care for the elderly, Healthcare and the NHS, Media, including BBC bias