Beth Britton MBE
Freelance Campaigner, Consultant and Writer, Family Career
Most people spend longer planning a summer holiday than they do their care needs. We don’t like thinking about care, linking it to mortality, finances, independence and way of life.
However, not planning often means families reach a crisis and make life-changing decisions at times of intense stress.
Having the ‘care conversation’?
Care conversations should (ideally) happen when everyone is well and include all options. If you find it hard to talk about care preferences, write them down. There are digital and printed resources that can help with planning care. Document health and welfare preferences and instructions in a Power of Attorney.
Care isn’t all care homes
My dad spent nine years in care homes, and I’ve seen wonderful ones (and some that weren’t). Remember though that care planning doesn’t have to mean moving into a care home if that isn’t what’s wanted. Hourly visiting care (domiciliary/homecare) or the more comprehensive option of live-in care mean the person will remain in their own home.
Alternative support options
Shared Lives (where a person needing care lives with another individual/family) or HomeShare (where a younger person moves into an older person’s home) are other less care-intensive options that support independence, companionship and help with light household duties.
Care conversations should (ideally) happen when everyone is well and include all options
Taking the ‘ouch’ out of paying for care
Care costs can run into thousands, with successive Governments dodging social care reform. Baroness Casey, Chair, Casey Commission, has said, “People pay tax and national insurance all their lives… only then to discover when they need it any assets over £23,250 means they cannot access help for free themselves.”1 Take the ‘ouch’ out of paying for future care by getting financial planning advice before you have care needs.
When Andy Burnham took over the Labour leadership, he said his father, who has Alzheimer’s and lives in a care home, didn’t know his son was now Prime Minister. With that personal experience now at the very top of Government, policies that make it easier to plan and pay for care will hopefully follow.
1. Baroness Casey. (2026). Baroness Casey’s speech to the LGA – 7 July 2026. https://tinyurl.com/5ypsmrep.
