Government ineptitude and erroneous policy choices combined with pre-existing weak regulation saw Covid-19 hit the social care sector in England like an earthquake, according to a University of Oxford study.
In a recent paper, ‘Covid‐19 and care homes in England: What happened and why?’, Oxford Professor of sociology and social policy Mary Daly found care homes were “poorly targeted and in many senses neglected” until late in the pandemic when a response was unavoidable.
Professor Daly said the “slow, late and inadequate” response was partially a result of the government’s “possible calculation that its policies towards the care sector and care homes were far less important than those for the NHS and policy errors would not ‘hurt them’ as much as would NHS mistakes or mis-steps”.
Social care struggles to be seen as a priority, she added, exacerbated by the separation of social care and the health system which makes governance and supply routes difficult, especially in a pandemic.
There have also been “years of austerity and resource cutting”, which have depleted the ability of local authorities to bolster social care, the report says.
“The weak regulatory tradition of the sector also contributes to explaining the inadequacy of the response,” said Daly.
“Care homes and social care in general are far down the chain of public policy and the majority are market providers, which see relatively little regulation,” she added.
While there have been some positives such as initiatives to integrate health and social care, Daly called for a new model of care for older adults.
“The large and diverse network of independent providers does not look like a resilient form of provision and is likely to have become even less resilient following the pandemic,” she said.
“Ultimately, the country has to answer the question of what is an acceptable way of caring for its older people and view the pandemic outcome as associated not just with short-term failures of policy and political leadership but a much deeper undervaluing of the came home sector, the activity of caring and those who require care.”
Daly added: “Long-term care policy has to become a meaningful part of the British welfare state in which the rights and entitlements of those involved are given a central place, unseating the far more dominant risk, exigency and need perspectives.”
