Social Insurance Scheme Gets Surprise Support From Care Workers

More than half of social care professionals believe a social insurance scheme is needed to fund the reform of care and support services. A further 27% say perhaps it is needed to raise adequate funds, but they fear it would prove too unpopular with the public.

The surprising results were revealed today by delegates voting at a leading conference for people working to integrate and personalise health services and social care.

Using hand-held electronic machines, 22% of the 100-strong audience responded positively to the question “Is a social insurance scheme needed to reform care and support?” but felt it should be voluntary, while 32% voted yes to a compulsory scheme. Less than a fifth of voters said that a social insurance scheme was unnecessary.

Asked whether the principle of making services for disabled and older people more personalised was being applied in social care, 59% of delegates said that personalisation had a toehold and another 25% felt that it was making inroads, but none said it was firmly embedded. Only 9% said that the drive to give social care clients more choice through personal budgets was a fad, but they were evenly divided over whether they were here to stay or whether the jury was still out.

The audience used the same technology to identify the main obstacles preventing the introduction of more personalised service to their clients. A lack of integration of services and funding streams topped the list, followed by professional and cultural resistance . But 47% flagged up a failure to develop a market and services for people to chose from as a major problem, ahead of scare resources and fears over media criticism. Their votes shaped the conference’s afternoon discussion around the best way to overcome these hurdles.

While only 22% of delegates identified a lack of understanding of the issues by the public and politicians as a problem, two-thirds felt that local councillors had only a basic knowledge of the personalisation agenda and a quarter described elected members as having “little or no understanding”.

The majority of delegates attending the two-day Managing New Realities conference in London, supported by the Guardian, voted against there being any conflict between providing an efficient service and a more personalised one.