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| Lord Forsyth: ‘Private insurance won’t fix the social care crisis’ | Lord Forsyth: ‘Private insurance won’t fix the social care crisis’ |
| (21 days later) | |
| Michael Forsyth, chair of the House of Lords economic committee, is in buoyant mood, happily surprised by the positive response to the committee’s recent, pugnacious report into social care funding. “I was astonished by the reaction, actually,” says the Conservative peer. Congratulations came from across parliament; and there were supportive emails from the public. They liked not just its bold call for a multibillion-pound, taxpayer-funded, NHS-style overhaul of adult social care, but its brisk frustration with the political failure of successive governments to address what it concluded (after a brief deliberation about whether such language was appropriately lordly) was a “national scandal”. | Michael Forsyth, chair of the House of Lords economic committee, is in buoyant mood, happily surprised by the positive response to the committee’s recent, pugnacious report into social care funding. “I was astonished by the reaction, actually,” says the Conservative peer. Congratulations came from across parliament; and there were supportive emails from the public. They liked not just its bold call for a multibillion-pound, taxpayer-funded, NHS-style overhaul of adult social care, but its brisk frustration with the political failure of successive governments to address what it concluded (after a brief deliberation about whether such language was appropriately lordly) was a “national scandal”. |
| The solution was admirably simple: write an £8bn cheque to local authorities in England and Wales to pull adult social care budgets back to pre-austerity 2010 levels; and create by 2025 a £7bn a year system of free personal care to help people with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing, personal hygiene, going to the toilet, and meal preparation. Importantly, the cash would be distributed via a central grant, removing postcode lotteries in standards of provision. Above all, robust action was needed, and quickly: as Lord Forsyth said at the launch of the report earlier this month: “Let’s stop faffing around.” | The solution was admirably simple: write an £8bn cheque to local authorities in England and Wales to pull adult social care budgets back to pre-austerity 2010 levels; and create by 2025 a £7bn a year system of free personal care to help people with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing, personal hygiene, going to the toilet, and meal preparation. Importantly, the cash would be distributed via a central grant, removing postcode lotteries in standards of provision. Above all, robust action was needed, and quickly: as Lord Forsyth said at the launch of the report earlier this month: “Let’s stop faffing around.” |
| Any initial concerns the peers had that their demands for an extra £15bn a year by 2025 were unrealistic were quickly drowned out by copious evidence of a broken system, he says. About 1.4 million people are denied the social care they need because of cuts, rationing and means tests. Many more endured basic “clean and feed” levels of care. The system is riddled with unfairness and inequality, and the gap between demand and resources is growing apace. People are suffering. “You would have to be blind and totally excluded from society not to be able to read or see that the system is failing. We all know the system is failing,” he says. | Any initial concerns the peers had that their demands for an extra £15bn a year by 2025 were unrealistic were quickly drowned out by copious evidence of a broken system, he says. About 1.4 million people are denied the social care they need because of cuts, rationing and means tests. Many more endured basic “clean and feed” levels of care. The system is riddled with unfairness and inequality, and the gap between demand and resources is growing apace. People are suffering. “You would have to be blind and totally excluded from society not to be able to read or see that the system is failing. We all know the system is failing,” he says. |
| Equally, some will have been surprised by the enthusiasm with which Forsyth – a former minister in John Major’s government – embraced this most statist of solutions. Forsyth less so. “I’m regarded as a rightwinger, as a Thatcherite,” he admits. “I believe in politics that the first duty of parliament is the defence of the nation but also to ensure, as Winston Churchill put it, to provide a net and a ladder; a net below which people do not fall and a ladder to help them get out of the net. Here you have people who can’t climb ladders and the net is full of holes.” | Equally, some will have been surprised by the enthusiasm with which Forsyth – a former minister in John Major’s government – embraced this most statist of solutions. Forsyth less so. “I’m regarded as a rightwinger, as a Thatcherite,” he admits. “I believe in politics that the first duty of parliament is the defence of the nation but also to ensure, as Winston Churchill put it, to provide a net and a ladder; a net below which people do not fall and a ladder to help them get out of the net. Here you have people who can’t climb ladders and the net is full of holes.” |
| The committee’s proposals were built on solid evidence, he says – “which I suppose these days is something of a novelty in terms of public policy”. So, private insurance solutions favoured by many in his own party were quickly dispatched, after the insurance industry told the committee they wouldn’t work. Half the social care budget is spent on people of working age, so insurance schemes would not help them. They were just a diversion from the reality that a properly functioning social care system is the expensive duty of the taxpayer, not of markets, says Forsyth. “The people who are looking for some easy way out of this are in search of a holy grail which does not exist.” | |
| If confirmation were needed that the system was crumbling, it came in the private testimony given to the committee by care workers, he says. He was struck by their dedication despite low pay, low status, the lack of a career structure, and the dearth of support available to them. You can’t blame employers for this, he says, “trying to squeeze a pint into a half-pint pot”. It all comes back to financing. “They [the carers] know that people are denied care not because the local authorities or anyone wants to be beastly but simply because they are having to ration resources in the face of increasing demands.” | If confirmation were needed that the system was crumbling, it came in the private testimony given to the committee by care workers, he says. He was struck by their dedication despite low pay, low status, the lack of a career structure, and the dearth of support available to them. You can’t blame employers for this, he says, “trying to squeeze a pint into a half-pint pot”. It all comes back to financing. “They [the carers] know that people are denied care not because the local authorities or anyone wants to be beastly but simply because they are having to ration resources in the face of increasing demands.” |
| Care for the elderly is a scandal – but don’t expect a solution from Hunt or Johnson | Polly Toynbee | Care for the elderly is a scandal – but don’t expect a solution from Hunt or Johnson | Polly Toynbee |
| The committee expressly set out not to produce yet another worthy social care funding report – there have been 17 in the last 20 years, all of which were ignored or abandoned – but to create a blueprint that was acceptable to both Labour and the Tories. He is conscious of the way both parties have weaponised social care reforms in past elections: Labour’s plans dubbed a “death tax” in 2010; Theresa May’s plans vilified as a dementia tax in 2017. May’s were “crackpot” proposals anyway, he reflects: “You don’t try and get a policy which requires consensus among the political parties and launch it in the middle of an election campaign.” | The committee expressly set out not to produce yet another worthy social care funding report – there have been 17 in the last 20 years, all of which were ignored or abandoned – but to create a blueprint that was acceptable to both Labour and the Tories. He is conscious of the way both parties have weaponised social care reforms in past elections: Labour’s plans dubbed a “death tax” in 2010; Theresa May’s plans vilified as a dementia tax in 2017. May’s were “crackpot” proposals anyway, he reflects: “You don’t try and get a policy which requires consensus among the political parties and launch it in the middle of an election campaign.” |
| Several days after our interview, Boris Johnson promised in his first utterances as prime minister to “fix the crisis in social care”. There has been speculation that his plan may adopt an insurance-style approach. Forsyth said Johnson should take note of the committee’s emphasis on funding the social care needs of working-age adults, and the importance of paying for it through taxation, warning: “Any plan which relies mainly on private insurance will not work, even with a pensions-style auto-enrolment scheme.” | Several days after our interview, Boris Johnson promised in his first utterances as prime minister to “fix the crisis in social care”. There has been speculation that his plan may adopt an insurance-style approach. Forsyth said Johnson should take note of the committee’s emphasis on funding the social care needs of working-age adults, and the importance of paying for it through taxation, warning: “Any plan which relies mainly on private insurance will not work, even with a pensions-style auto-enrolment scheme.” |
| By convention the government must formally respond to the committee within eight weeks; and a debate on the floor of the Lords should take place before Christmas. Brexit or no Brexit, there is simply no time to waste, Forsyth says. If the government is serious about social care reform it cannot possibly avoid the committee’s conclusions. “This is a broken system, we are reaching the end of the road.” | By convention the government must formally respond to the committee within eight weeks; and a debate on the floor of the Lords should take place before Christmas. Brexit or no Brexit, there is simply no time to waste, Forsyth says. If the government is serious about social care reform it cannot possibly avoid the committee’s conclusions. “This is a broken system, we are reaching the end of the road.” |
| Curriculum vitae | Curriculum vitae |
| Age: 64. | Age: 64. |
| Lives: London. | Lives: London. |
| Family: Married, three children. | Family: Married, three children. |
| Education: Arbroath high school, Arbroath, Angus, Scotland; University of St Andrews (1972-76). | Education: Arbroath high school, Arbroath, Angus, Scotland; University of St Andrews (1972-76). |
| Career: 2017-present: chairman of the Lords economic affairs committee; 1999-present: member of the House of Lords; 2005-12: Evercore Partners International LLP; 2002-05: deputy chairman of JP Morgan; 1999-2001: vice-chairman, Investment Banking Europe at JP Morgan; 1995-97: secretary of state for Scotland; 1994-95: minister for home affairs; 1992-94: employment minister; 1990-92: minister of state for Scotland; 1983-97: MP for Stirling. | Career: 2017-present: chairman of the Lords economic affairs committee; 1999-present: member of the House of Lords; 2005-12: Evercore Partners International LLP; 2002-05: deputy chairman of JP Morgan; 1999-2001: vice-chairman, Investment Banking Europe at JP Morgan; 1995-97: secretary of state for Scotland; 1994-95: minister for home affairs; 1992-94: employment minister; 1990-92: minister of state for Scotland; 1983-97: MP for Stirling. |
| Public life: president of the Steamboat Association of Great Britain; founder of the Pimlico Tree and Preservation Trust (now the Westminster Tree Trust); former president of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. | Public life: president of the Steamboat Association of Great Britain; founder of the Pimlico Tree and Preservation Trust (now the Westminster Tree Trust); former president of the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. |
| Interests: Mountaineering, fly-fishing, skiing and astronomy. | Interests: Mountaineering, fly-fishing, skiing and astronomy. |
| • This article was amended on 19 August 2019 because private insurance solutions, not social insurance solutions as an earlier version said, which were favoured by many in the Conservative party were quickly dispatched. This has been corrected. | |
| • This article was amended on 19 August 2019 because an earlier version referred to social insurance solutions favoured by many in the Conservative party being quickly dispatched. That meant to refer to private insurance solutions. This has been corrected. | |
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