Yesterday marked the start of ElderCare week – an annual event, run by the charity Counsel and Care, to raise awareness of older people’s social care and related issues. This year the theme is 'Everyone needs to know about ElderCare options'. During the week, Counsel and Care is calling for advice and information on social care to be made more accessible for older people, their families and carers.

They have good reason. In a survey of over 1,300 people, Counsel and Care found that 64 per cent hadn’t thought about how they will pay for their care in later life. Given that one in four of us will need it, this is quite worrying. A further 79 per cent think that not enough is done to tell people about the care options available.

And they would be right. In 2007, the government set a target that all local authorities had to have a universal advice and information service to help people with their care in later life. These had to be up and running by April this year. But another survey by Opportunity Links has found 40 per cent of local authorities didn't even have a strategy for delivering universal information and advice yet, let alone having the service in place.

Perhaps in a time of severe budgetary cuts this is understandable. After all, information is not an actual care service is it? If something needs to be cut, rather the leaflets than the meals on wheels. Well, no. What councils have failed to take into account is that in 2007, the government set another target – to have 30 per cent of council funded care users using a 'personal budget' by April next year. Personal budgets – next generation direct payments – allow care users to buy their own services and support, rather than having this decided for them by their local authority.

This is rapidly turning large numbers of hitherto passive recipients of care into 'care consumers', armed with a pot of money, looking to local businesses for equipment and services to support them in their homes. But imagine being given a Twix every day of your life, then being given 70p and sent into a sweet shop. You have no idea what the vast array of products are like, whether they are good value for money, or whether you will like them or not. Without someone telling you what was what, you could well end up spending your 70p on something vile and be horribly disappointed.

And this is what care users face in local authorities with no information and advice service. True, the savvy and younger care users might do some Googling, speak to some charities, and muddle through. But for older people, a leaflet from the council could make all the difference. Because we’re not talking about getting the wrong type of chocolate here: unsuitable care, or not enough care, can be a matter of life and death.

Forthcoming research from Demos shows a majority of care users have never even heard of personal budgets. It’s hardly surprising, then, that only 13 per cent of care users have chosen to use them. The take up rate is lower among older people, who have weighed up the risks and have decided to stick with their proverbial Twix. Why would someone opt for a strange new system they’ve never heard of?

If councils expect to meet their 30 per cent take up rate by next year, and more importantly, avoid thousands of people going in to a complex local market blind to issues of quality and cost, then information and advice isn’t a luxury. It’s a pre-requisite.

Demos' personal budget market intelligence project will soon be publishing a national update, with data showing how much people know about personal budgets and what they might spend them on if they received one. For more information, contact Claudia Wood.

New Comment