Building Better Social Care

Join us for a joint event hosted by NEF, Women’s Budget Group and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung on how we build better social care.

Tuesday 16th November 10:00-12:00

It is widely recognised that social care is in crisis. After the public outcry over the spread of Covid-19 in care homes last year, the government has been under pressure to follow through on their pledge to ​‘fix social care once and for all’.

Whilst the situation in the UK remains bleak, over the last several decades a number of countries have reformed their social care systems to include an element of universal coverage. Universal, tax funded social care is in place in Sweden. And long-term care schemes with a universal element have been introduced in a number of countries, including Germany and Japan. Yet we hear very little about these different arrangements here in the UK.

This event, held jointly by New Economics Foundation, the Women’s Budget Group and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, will examine what we can learn from international efforts to improve access to quality social care. We will hear from:

• Professor Marta Szebehely: department of Social Work at Stockholm University.
• Professor Naoki Ikegami: department of Health Policy and Management at Keio University.
• Professor Hildegard Theobald: department of Organisational Gerontology at Vechta University.

Short presentations detailing social care reforms in Sweden, Germany and Japan will be followed by a discussion of what we can learn from these examples in the UK context. There will be a chance to discuss what you have heard with others on the call.

You can watch a recording of the event below.

Please note that due to technical issues the recording does not capture the entire event. Our apologies to those contributors not included.