Most people want more state involvement in social care, but there is little consensus on how to pay for it, a new poll shows.
The Health Foundation and Ipsos survey found 40% of people thought the standard of social care had worsened over the past year, while just 4% believed it had improved.
A mere 9% said the government had the right policies for social care when the poll was carried out – between 21 and 27 May, before Andy Burnham became prime minister.
The research, comprised of 2,238 adults, comes as the Casey Commission launches a public consultation on how social care in England should be reformed.
Lucinda Allen, a senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation, said: ‘Our findings suggest there is a significant gap between the social care system people want and the one that exists today. People remain deeply concerned about the quality of care, and many continue to misunderstand how the current system works.’
Respondents agreed the government should provide more funding, but struggled to agree on where the money should come from.
An additional tax specifically for social care and reducing spending on other public services were the most popular options, backed by 23%.
16% said authorities should increase income tax and 15% claimed increasing National Insurance contributions was the way to go.
However 18% said the government should not increase spending on social care altogether.
Against this backdrop, Conservative voters were more likely to support cutting spending on other public services to fund care, with 30% backing the idea compared to 13% of Labour voters.
The research also found many people don’t understand how social care works. Only 44% understood that it is not generally free at the point of need, while 39% thought it was. A third of people also believed the NHS provides most social care for older people.
Allen added: ‘With care mainly provided by for-profit companies, the fact that only 5% of the public think this is how most care providers should be owned is striking.
‘Attempting to reverse this would be expensive, time consuming and cause major upheaval in the sector, so needs to be carefully weighed against other priorities for improving care or alternatives like stronger regulation of providers.’
She said the Casey Commission is the perfect opportunity to explain how the current system works and discuss the options for improving the sector.
‘With many people going without the care they need and strain on the system high, Andy Burnham, rightly wants to move quickly with reforming social care,’ Allen said. ‘The Casey Commission’s Big Conversation provides an important opportunity to build public understanding of the current system and explore the trade-offs involved in reforming it.’
The poll found people were more positive about the NHS, with 34% saying they were pessimistic about its performance – the lowest level recorded by the Health Foundation since its polling began in 2021.
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