Older Workers and Care-Giving in England: the Policy Context for Older Workers’ Employment Patterns

This article considers recent changes in the incidence of caring among people aged 50-64 in England and the policy context in which these have occurred. After introducing the topic, research questions addressed and methods used, it outlines findings from other research on how older workers experience and manage caring roles. It then sets out relevant public policy developments since carers were first accorded rights to recognition and services in 1995, focusing on workplace support, local services and financial help for people who reduce or quit their paid work to care. The article presents new analyses of the population censuses conducted in England in 2001 and 2011, focusing on people aged 50-64 and especially on those aged 60-64, the group in which the largest changes were seen. Theses show growth in caring at higher levels of intensity for older workers, and increases in the incidence of caring alongside paid work. To deepen understanding of these changes, the analysis also draws on data from a government survey of carers conducted in 2009-10. The concluding discussion argues that although the modest policy changes implemented since 1995 have provided some support to older workers managing work and care, more policy attention needs to be given following the sharp increase in the incidence of caring seen among people aged 50-64 in England between 2001 and 2011

Researching telecare: the importance of context

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a research method which offers insights into the factors which affect the optimal use and implementation of telecare, or which may lead to its rejection by older people with support needs – factors pertinent to those involved in the design and delivery of both telecare research studies and of services. Design/methodology/approach The methodology outlined, influenced by Chicago School and Science and Technology Studies, emphasises the importance of context when examining social phenomena, such as the use of technology. The multi-method approach identified key patterns which provide insights into how telecare was used by a sample of older adults, including information on its suboptimal use and rejection. Findings The study of telecare use in real-life situations – and the investigation of other complex social interventions – requires an approach which fully considers the importance of context in explaining social phenomena. The main value of the method and findings lies in the insights offered to designers of larger studies which seek to generalise results, including telecare randomised control trials, as well as for those involved in the delivery of telecare services to achieve optimal adoption and use. Originality/value The study methods described combined ethnographic, longitudinal and qualitative methodologies and creative research tools in an innovative way to allow exploration of how context affects the uptake and use of telecare

Sustainable care: theorising the wellbeing of caregivers to older persons

The term ‘care crisis’ is invoked to denote chronic system failures and bad outcomes for the people involved. We present a comprehensive wellbeing framework and illustrate its practicality with evidence of negative outcomes for those who provide care. We find evidence of substantial material and relational wellbeing failures for family carers and for care workers, while there has been little interest in carers’ views of their ability to live the life that they most value. Understanding and improving wellbeing outcomes for carers is an essential component of sustainable care, which requires the wellbeing of the different actors in care arrangements

Longitudinal analysis of local government spending on adult social care and carers’ subjective well-being in England

Objectives: Reform of England’s social care system is repeatedly discussed in the context of increasing demand, rising costs and austere policies that have decreased service provision. This study investigates the association between unpaid carers’ subjective well-being and local government spending on adult social care (ASC). Setting and participants: Our sample consists of 110 188 observations on 29 174 adults in England from the 2004–2007 British Household Panel Survey and the 2009–2018 UK Household Longitudinal Study. The data on local authorities’ spending on ASC where participants live is derived from the publications Personal Social Care Expenditure and Unit Costs (2004–2016); and ASC Activity and Finance Report England (2016–2018). Outcome measures: Subjective well-being is measured by the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and 12-item version of the Mental Component Summary (MCS-12). We applied fixed-effects linear models to investigate the moderating effect of ASC spending on the association between subjective well-being and caring, controlling for a range of socioeconomic and demographic variables. Results: Carers have a lower level of subjective well-being compared with non-carers, evident in their higher average GHQ-12 Likert score (β=2.7277 95% CI 0.2547 to 5.2008). Differences in the subjective well-being of carers and non-carers decrease with local government spending on ASC. Subjective well-being for carers was at a similar level to that of non-carers in high ASC spending local authorities (GHQ-12: −0.0123 95% CI −0.2185 to 0.1938, MCS-12: 0.0347 95% CI −0.3403 to 0.4098) and lower in other areas (GHQ-12: 0.1893 95% CI 0.0680 to 0.3107, MCS-12: −0.2906 95% CI –0.5107 to −0.0705). The moderating effect of ASC spending is found among people who care for 35+ hours per week. Conclusion: Government spending on ASC protects unpaid carers’ well-being, and people providing more than 35 weekly hours of unpaid care are more likely to benefit from the current social care system

Fertility, Living Arrangements, Care and Mobility

There are four main interconnecting themes around which the contributions in this book are based. This introductory chapter aims to establish the broad context for the chapters that follow by discussing each of the themes. It does so by setting these themes within the overarching demographic challenge of the twenty-first century – demographic ageing. Each chapter is introduced in the context of the specific theme to which it primarily relates and there is a summary of the data sets used by the contributors to illustrate the wide range of cross-sectional and longitudinal data analysed

Informal and formal reconciliation strategies of older peoples’ working carers: the European carers@work project

Faced with a historically unprecedented process of demographic ageing, many European societies implemented pension reforms in recent years to extend working lives. Although aimed at rebalancing public pension systems, this approach has the unintended side effect that it also extends the number of years in which working carers have to juggle the conflicting demands of employment and caregiving. This not only impinges on working carers’ well-being and ability to continue providing care but also affects European enterprises’ capacity to generate growth which increasingly relies on ageing workforces. The focus of this paper will thus be a cross-national comparison of individual reconciliation strategies and workplace-related company policies aimed at enabling working carers to reconcile both conflicting roles in four different European welfare states: Germany, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom