As PM Andy Burnham prepares to make announcements about social care on Wednesday, new research shows that people in England support major changes to the country's social care system, including using taxes on wealth and higher earners to pay for it.
The study (linked below), led by Loughborough University, found strong public backing for expanding access to social care, lowering the amount people have to pay themselves and funding improvements through progressive taxation rather than council tax or private insurance.
Researchers surveyed around 2,800 people in England across two nationally representative studies, asking them to choose between different realistic social care reform packages.
Rather than asking people whether they supported one policy in isolation, the research explored which combinations of funding, eligibility and priorities the public preferred.
The findings suggest politicians may have greater public support for ambitious reform than is often assumed.
Interestingly, the researchers found that people's own financial circumstances had little influence on what they supported.
Whether someone owned a home, earned a high or low income, had personal experience of social care, or was older or younger made remarkably little difference to their preferences.
Instead, people's broader values and political outlook played a much bigger role.
The researchers say this has important implications for governments and campaigners trying to build support for reform.
Rather than telling people how changes would benefit them personally, messages that appeal to shared values, fairness and improving society are likely to be far more persuasive.
The study also found areas of unexpected political agreement. On issues such as funding social care through wealth taxes, making eligibility more generous and reducing out-of-pocket costs, respondents from across the political spectrum broadly agreed, although left-leaning participants generally supported reform more enthusiastically.
Dr Anthony Kevins, from Loughborough University, said: “There's often an assumption that ambitious social care reform would be politically unpopular because people don't want to pay for it.
“Our findings suggest the opposite. People are willing to support meaningful reform, particularly when it's funded through progressive taxation and delivers broader access to care."
“Perhaps the most important finding is that people's views aren't mainly driven by their own financial interests. Appeals based on fairness and shared values are likely to be much more effective than simply telling people what's in it for them.”
The second part of the research explored how people reacted to different goals for reform.
While respondents were generally open to a wide range of improvements, the researchers identified two clear ‘red lines’: expanding private insurance into social care and increasing means-testing by concentrating support only on people with the fewest assets.
Both proposals attracted notably lower levels of support than other options.
The project was funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant.
Read the evidence brief by Dr Kevins and Dr Naomi Lightman (Toronto Metropolitan University)
About the study
- Around 2,800 respondents in England took part across two nationally representative survey experiments.
- Participants compared realistic packages of social care reforms rather than judging single policies in isolation.
- The research examined public attitudes to funding, eligibility, payment caps and wider goals for reform.
- Evidence Brief: Public Priorities for Social Care Reform: What residents in England want and what they don't.
ENDS