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The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the charitable sector, and its prospects for recovery
- Author:
- WOOD Claudia
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2021
- Pagination:
- 22
- Place of publication:
- London
This paper explores the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the charity sector, its prospects for 2021 and beyond, and how the sector – with the support of the Government and grant makers – can put itself on a more sustainable footing as the UK recovers from the crisis. The report reviews the evidence on the impact of the pandemic on charity services and revenues, to ascertain how they have been adapting to and coping with this period. It also looks at the varying challenges for 2021 – those that directly result from the pandemic, the impact of the broader economic picture, as well as challenges the charitable sector was grappling with pre-pandemic, which will no doubt come to a head in the months and years which follow it. Section 1 presents the state of the charitable sector before the crisis. Section 2 then looks at how the pandemic has affected charity services and revenues. Section 3 discusses how the charity sector will fare in 2021. And finally, Section 4 presents a series of recommendations for the government, grant funders and charitable organisations respectively, to achieve more resilience, recovery and future growth. The report argues that the Covid-19 crisis will decimate the charity sector in the UK unless the Government takes urgent action. Without urgent and targeted intervention, grassroots charity organisations - those less likely to have adequate reserves - risk being wiped out altogether. At the same time, public giving throughout the crisis risks being used as a stopgap to fill widening deficiencies in statutory provision. The report calls on the Government to immediately announce a new short-term emergency funding package; urgently review existing Covid-19 policies; ensure that public generosity during the pandemic is used as intended; and provide longer term investment in the hardest-hit charitable sectors. (Edited publisher abstract)
The social value of sheltered housing: briefing paper
- Author:
- WOOD Claudia
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2017
- Pagination:
- 16
- Place of publication:
- London
Drawing on the findings from a review of evidence on the impact of sheltered housing for older people, this briefing paper provides estimates of the cost savings sheltered housing can achieve for health and social care. The paper gives a conservative estimate of a social value saving made by sheltered housing of nearly half a billion pounds. This figure takes into account costs saved through a reduction in the number of falls by older people, the time spent in hospital, combating loneliness, as well as fewer unnecessary call-outs to emergency services. The paper was commissioned to help Anchor, Hanover and Housing & Care 21 consider the future of sheltered housing. (Edited publisher abstract)
The top of the ladder
- Author:
- WOOD Claudia
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 95
- Place of publication:
- London
Many older people in the UK are at "the top of the ladder", living in houses that are too large or no longer suited to their needs. Enabling this group to move to smaller properties will free up family homes, and in turn free up smaller properties for first and second time buyers. One solution to the shortage of housing would be to enable older people to move out of large family homes into more suitable and smaller properties. However, there are currently very few specialist properties: only 2% of the UK housing stock (533,000 homes) meets the needs of older people, most of which is in the social rented sector. This report examines the wider benefits of building more homes suitable for older people, citing research by the Housing our Ageing Population: Panel for Innovation (HAPPI) on lifetime homes..It also examines the policy background and obstacles to supply and demand. It suggests tackling problems with planning, working in partnership at national and local level, and offerring practical help locally to enable older people to move. (Original abstract)
Destination unknown: summer 2012
- Author:
- WOOD Claudia
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2012
- Pagination:
- 110p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Since October 2010, Demos has been exploring the impact of the Coalition Government’s welfare reform agenda on disabled people through the Destination Unknown series. This series of publications has reported twice a year on how 6 disabled households have been faring, tracking the changes they were seeing to their benefits income and quality of life as a result of cuts to public services and local budgets. These 6 case studies comprise: a young disabled child cared for by her parents; a disabled man and his wife; a single disabled man; a single disabled woman; a middle-aged, disabled man who is a social care service user; and a disabled mother caring for her disabled child. The report is the 4th and final instalment of the project. It reveals that the worst is yet to come. Since the previous report, the Welfare Reform Act has gained Royal Assent and contains a number of measures that will reduce the material income of disabled people and their families over the next 2 years. By speaking to families themselves, this report reveals the human cost of this loss in income; from increasing isolation and mental health problems to a greater burden on informal carers. It concludes that the Government must change impact assessments so that they do not just consider the aggregate impact of one cut, but assess the cumulative impact of several cuts on individual households.
Destination unknown: Autumn 2011
- Author:
- WOOD Claudia
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 109p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
In 2010, Destination Unknown explored how cuts to welfare and public spending would affect disabled people in Britain. It calculated how the welfare reforms and cuts to benefits – announced in the Emergency Budget and in the run up to the Spending Review – would affect five typical disabled families. The research showed that, far from being protected from the worst of the cuts, disabled families across the country faced dramatic reductions in their household incomes, totalling £9 billion. However, this initial research only told half of the picture – it was only possible to model the impact of welfare cuts on disabled people and not the implications of cuts to public services and local authority budgets. To understand more fully the effects of these changes, the Disability in Austerity Study, followed five typical disabled families through the course of this Parliament and tracking the impact of fiscal tightening on their lives. This pamphlet is the second report in the ongoing longitudinal study and is the first since new local authority budgets and a range of welfare reforms took effect. It provides detail on the consequences the cuts have for the everyday lives of disabled people, revealing the first-hand experiences of disabled families living on the edge of uncertainty, financial stress and disability poverty.
Tailor made
- Author:
- WOOD Claudia
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2011
- Pagination:
- 231p., bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- London
The future of personalisation in health and social care in the light of the current social, economic and policy context is considered in this report. Funded by the Sue Ryder organisation, it drew on a review of existing research and policy development around personalisation in England, Scotland and Wales, a review of data on the use of personal budgets in health and social care in England, focus groups with care users and staff, and evidence of good practice in adult social services in selected areas (North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus, Herefordshire, Sutton, Essex, and the South Essex Coalition). The report explores the limitations of personal budgets as a tool for personalisation, the barriers to broader personalisation, and meeting the challenges of personalisation for those with complex needs. It concludes by presenting a series of recommendations for policy and practice, covering a more inclusive personal budgets agenda, a strategy for progression, recognition of the importance of housing, co-production and democracy in residential settings, social networks and a concept of 'just enough' support, staffing and providing services in a personalised way, personalisation at the end of life, and integration of health and care. It argues that to achieve the benefits of personalisation there must be a personalised approach, where everyone can choose the method of personalisation that suits them.
Personal best
- Author:
- WOOD Claudia
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2010
- Pagination:
- 125p.
- Place of publication:
- London
Personal budgets in social care give care users more control over their care by enabling them to purchase their own support according to their needs. The national roll-out of personal budgets was set as a priority for local authorities in 2007, and ‘Putting People First’ set a target that by April 2011 30% of council funded care users across the country would be using a personal budget. The Coalition government has left this target in place. As around 13% of people currently have one, this represents a major shift in a very short space of time, requiring both local authorities and care providers to adjust to rapid change. Yet the intelligence on personal budget spending remains limited. The research presented in this report provides some insight into how commissioners and providers will need to go about these responsibilities. It summarises the findings from a survey of 770 care users across 10 local authorities, which focused on what people wanted to change about their lives and the care and support they might like to use. It includes information from personal budget and direct payment users, council funded care users and self funders. The findings represent a significant challenge for providers and commissioners. Potential issues of affordability, lack of consumer information and hands on guidance, and providers unprepared for significant shifts in demand could all create a highly ‘imperfect market’, where care users cannot secure the services they want and need and where some providers may be driven from the market unnecessarily.
A good retirement: public attitudes to the role of the state and the individual in achieving financial security in later life
- Authors:
- WOOD Claudia, VIBERT Simone
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2017
- Pagination:
- 79
- Place of publication:
- London
Discusses the findings of research into how the general public view their future retirement, how it should be funded and the implications for practitioners and policy makers. The research, which included a survey of around 2,000 members of the general public as well as focus groups with people over 40, looked at what people valued, how they thought they might pay for it, and the role of the state in paying for a good retirement, and the costs of care in retirement. The results found that people value health and financial wellbeing in retirement, and believe the government should provide a safety net of some sort. However, most felt that financial wellbeing in late life is a matter of individual responsibility. The research also found that although the number of people who believe that it is an individual's responsibility to pay for their own care appears to be growing with time, few people are actively preparing to meet their potential social care costs. A quarter of those surveyed assume the government will provide care free of charge. The report calls for the government to clarify what people should expect to pay towards their care in later life, and provide advice and assistance for people to achieve this. (Edited publisher abstract)
Building companionship: how better design can combat loneliness in later life
- Authors:
- WOOD Claudia, SALTER Jo
- Publisher:
- DEMOS
- Publication year:
- 2016
- Pagination:
- 25
- Place of publication:
- London
This report explores the issue of loneliness in later life and how it can be combated through creating more connected communities and better design of retirement housing. It discusses the scale the problem; the impact on health and potential costs to the state; what is effective in combatting loneliness for older people, including the role of technology; and why older people living in specialist age specific housing such as retirement housing, extra care and assisted living often feel less lonely than older people in general housing. The report draws on the existing evidence regarding loneliness in later life, interviews with McCarthy and Stone homeowners about their social lives before and after moving into retirement housing, and a survey of the public. The report highlights wide regional variations in loneliness, with Londoners reporting the highest levels and Yorkshire and Humberside emerging as the least lonely region. It also discusses the high levels of companionship found in retirement developments and the lessons that could be learnt for how wider building design could address social isolation. Recommendations include: the creation of ‘cities for all ages’ which enable older people to remain socially, physically and mentally active and for local authorities to encourage active citizenship and social engagement amongst the older generation. It also recommends an increase in the provision of retirement housing, that neighbourhood planning strategies also have a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Health and Wellbeing Strategies and promote schemes to develop older people's IT skills. (Edited publisher abstract)
A time and a place: what people want at the end of life
- Authors:
- WOOD Claudia, SALTER Jo
- Publisher:
- Sue Ryder Care
- Publication year:
- 2013
- Pagination:
- 48
This report investigates the elements of care that are important to individuals at the end of their life. It argues that for too long the focus has been where people want to die rather than how. It delves deeper into the components of care that people feel are important, and explores more fully what each of these means. There were three phases to this piece of research. The first involved in-depth interviews with five experts in the fields of palliative and end of life care, to get a sense of how, in their professional opinion, place and preference are currently shaping services for people approaching the end of life, the appropriateness of this, and the capacity of different care settings to deliver peoples’ preferences. The second phase involved commissioning a survey of 2,038 members of the public, in which people were asked to prioritise aspects associated with a good death (things like being free from pain, being surrounded by loved ones, and having dignity and respect) the things that would be important to them personally during their final days of life. To understand how these preferences map on to different locations, people were then asked how well they felt the same list of features were delivered across four different end of life care settings – home, hospital, hospice and nursing or residential care home. The resulting analysis was able to compare peoples’ answers to each of these questions in relation to their previous experience of spending time with a family member or friend during their final days of life, and where this occurred. Finally, a focus group was hosted, with nine bereaved relatives of people who had died in different locations (in hospital, in a hospice, or at home), to explore how their expectations of dying in different places – both positive and negative – were met, and where the reality differed from their expectations. (Original abstract)