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In the United Kingdom, more than 1.5 million care workers are charged with daily responsibilities for the elder population’s long-term care, either in their own homes or in nursing homes. Carers, as they’re called in the U.K., can be responsible for everything from cooking and cleaning to bathing and making sure clients take their medications. However, the caring system needs more funding and staff, as it struggles to keep pace with the aging population.
The elder care system in the U.K. is not part of the National Health Service. In theory, this means it sits outside the public health care system, and people must cover their own costs. In practice, a portion of lower-income people over age 65 can receive assistance from their local council. But following Britain’s years of austerity under the Conservative Party, spending on carers was cut by one-fifth in a ten-year period, from 2004 to 2014. A study from the BBC found that, over that period, council budgets for care fell by 6 percent, while the over-65 population that would most rely on these services rose by 17 percent.
The strain on supply of carers meant that the standard of care slipped. An investigation from The Telegraph in 2015 found that more than half a million home care visits lasted less than five minutes. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence created new requirements that all home care visits last at least 30 minutes, but the following year one in five councils were still commissioning 15-minute “flying visits.”
On top of shorter and less-comprehensive visits, carers in the U.K. are often not paid according to the national living wage. While carers are paid about £9 per hour for their time with patients, 54 percent of councils said they don’t pay for their travel time between homes, which can be up to 30 minutes apart on public transport. Carers have been forced to cut back visits to fit in the daily rounds of patients.
The low pay contributes to the U.K.’s job vacancy rate in frontline care work, which is about 8 percent. The staff turnover rate is about 30 percent, according to a 2019 study from Skills for Care. Another report said Britons were less likely to become carers because of the unsteady pay and hours. However, the British care system is dependent on non-British workers. One of every five carers is born outside the U.K., and that rate increases to three in five in London and the Southeast. They come from around the world, with significant percentages from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. Similar trends are found between white carers and carers who identify as Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME, the British equivalent classification for people of color, or POC). Additionally, about 80 percent of all carers in the U.K. are women.
As with many sectors in Britain, there is speculation on how Brexit will affect carers. European carers already in the country should simply be able to apply for the British “settlement” program, but any labor trade deal changes could affect future recruitment, potentially creating more shortages of carers. Some foreign carers also told The Guardian that they felt “belittled” in their roles in the U.K., compared to their native countries.
The professional carers in the U.K. are joined by the more than five million people who provide unpaid care to family or friends, usually in addition to their employment. This gendered responsibility falls mostly on women. Since the coronavirus hit, many more people have taken on unpaid caring roles as well, leading to vast increases across demographics of Britons caring for each other.
The U.K.’s elder care system shares aspects with the United States, in that it’s underprioritized, undercompensated, and undervalued.
