Care crisis beckons due to shortfall of family carers for older people, by 2017

The number of older people requiring informal care will outnumber the amount of adult children or family members able to provide it for the first time in 2017.

There will be a predicted shortfall of 160,000 caregivers by 2032 because demand for this form of informal care is expected to increase by 60 per cent over this time period.

The report, published by think tank IPPR, found two million older people could be left without an option of having an adult child to provide care if they need it, by 2030.

The new report is the latest in a series from IPPR’s flagship ‘Condition of Britain’ project on social policy. The final report from the Condition of Britain project will be published in June.

In response to the report, Janet Morrision, chief executive of Independent Age, said:

“This report confirms the huge concern felt by many about who will look after them when they are older. We are already in crisis in terms of caring for older people. 800,000 older people don’t get the care they need from either the State or their families. With growing life expectancy this problem will only get worse unless action is taken now.”

The generation strain

The lack of family carers for an increasing amount of people over 65 has been labelled the ‘generation strain,’ and calls have been made for new community institutions capable of sustaining the increase in older care needs to be created as a prevention of a care crisis.

Ms Morrison continued: “There is a severe funding squeeze on local authorities. More money is needed in the care system however money should also be used more effectively through the use of better advice and information services. Under the new Care Bill there will be a duty of care on local authorities to establish an information and advice system for social care in their area. The IPPR report highlights how crucial this is”.

The report said more needs to be done to learn from other countries to understand how they are easing the increasing burden of care on adult children.

The IPPR wants the Government to build new ‘community institutions’ to cope with the imminent care crisis.

A service run in Germany houses public services for different age groups such as childcare and care for older people to bring the generations together under one roof, and neighbourhood networks for older people and their families should be implemented in the parts of the country which need it the most, according to the report’s authors.

Clare McNeil, IPPR senior research fellow, said:

“Britain needs to build new community institutions capable of sustaining us through the changes ahead and to adapt the social structures already in place, such as family and care, public services, the workplace and neighbourhoods.

“The supply of unpaid care to older people with support needs by their adult children will not keep pace with future demand. Thousands of people in their 60s and 70s today could be left to cope on their own when they need care in the future, with overstretched services unable to make up the shortfall.”

Pressure on carers

It was also revealed older people are increasingly taking on a caring role themselves, with the biggest increase in carers seen in those aged 65 and older, caring for their spouses or partners.

However the effect of providing care on an older person could increase their own existing health problems, disabilities and have a negative impact on their own wellbeing.

Mario Ambrosi, head of public affairs at care charity Anchor says: “There is a lot of pressure on families today. Anchor research found that half of people feel guilty for not making more time for older family members, and more than a third (34 per cent) say that living too far away is the main reason for not visiting their elderly relatives.

“Often older people need more specialist care too - but the care sector is facing challenges of its own.

“We all hope that we will be well cared for in older age, and as an ageing society more of us are likely to need professional care. “The challenge falls not only to families but also to the adult social care sector and Government, to inform and encourage every individual to plan for their own future care needs.”

Bringing generations together

The report recommends building new neighbourhood networks for older people to give and receive support, housing public services for different age groups (such as childcare and care for the elderly) under one roof, to bring generations together and investing in local public health budgets to strengthen community groups.

It would also like to see stronger employment rights for those caring for people who need more than 20 hours of care a week, to make it easier for family members to combine work and care and care coordinators providing a ‘single local point of contact’ to replace the ‘care management’ currently provided by adult social services in every area by 2020, for all but the most complex cases of care.

Support for Elderly was named the second most important area of public spending in last year’s YouGov poll for Progress and the IPPR claimed meeting the long term care challenges will require a renegotiation of the four pillars of a caring society. According to the new research, creating a balance between family, community, market and state can only be reached by an open partnership between the Government and the wider public.