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WIGO NEWSLETTER | SEPTEMBER 2026 |
WHAT KIND OF SOCIAL CARE
DO YOU WANT?
Help us change the conversation about social care
| The new Prime Minister Andy Burnham has started a national debate about the future of social care.
That’s good news. But too often the debate starts — and sometimes ends — with two questions: • How will we pay for social care? Both are important questions. But at WIGO we think there is another, more fundamental one: |
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| What kind of social care do we actually want? For our future selves. |
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Many discussions about social care still assume that, as we grow older and need support, all we will want or need is home care based on care ‘tasks’, or residential care.
That’s not what many older people — and people thinking about getting older — tell us they want.
We hear from people who want imaginative, flexible, responsive local support that helps them continue to live their lives their way.
That might mean practical or personal help at home. But it could also mean help to stay connected to friends and community, or support to continue doing the things that matter to us. We might achieve this through adaptations and technology; different housing options; small-scale supported living; intergenerational approaches; opportunities to pool resources with other people; or completely new forms of support that aren’t mainstream — or haven’t yet been invented.
Above all, people tell us they want choice and control.
And there is evidence that we don’t have enough of either.
THE EVIDENCE: NOT ENOUGH CHOICE OR CONTROL
The Government’s own Adult Social Care Survey for 2024/25 found that only 34.4% of people receiving long-term social care said they had as much control over their daily lives as they wanted. And 27.7% of people receiving community-based support said they did not have enough choice over the care and support services they received.
The language may be at odds with what WIGO is about (‘receiving social care’ indeed!), but the general thrust of the findings is powerful.
WRITE TO YOUR MP
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One simple thing you can do Write to your MP and tell them about the life you want to lead as you grow older — and the support that might enable you to lead it. |
You don’t need to be an expert on social care. In fact, we’d rather you weren’t. Write as yourself. Tell your MP what matters to you.
Find your MP: UK Parliament – contact your MP
A LETTER TO GET YOU STARTED
| https://wigo.org.uk/resources/andy-burnhams-consultation-on-social-care-2026-a-template-letter-to-your-mp/ | |
| MAKE IT YOURS Please change the letter as much as you like. The most important part is your own experience and your own aspirations. A few sentences in your own words may be more powerful than anything we could write for you. |
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You could also include the WIGO report: WIGO Report 2025
You could say that you are connected to WIGO and agree with the findings of our recent survey of older people and people thinking about getting older. MPs take notice when they know you are part of a wider movement.
WHO SHOULD I WRITE TO?
Start with your own MP. MPs pay particular attention to correspondence from their own constituents, so please include your home address or postcode.
We are also particularly interested in reaching MPs involved in three Parliamentary groups:
- Adult Social Care APPG — Chair: Sojan Joseph MP
- Ageing and Older People APPG — Chair: Rachael Maskell MP
- Housing and Care for Older People APPG — Chair: Anna Dixon MP
If your MP is involved with one of these groups, please mention that in your letter.
| AND PLEASE TELL WIGO WHAT HAPPENS If your MP replies, we’d love to hear what they say. With your permission, we may bring together what WIGO members tell us and what MPs say in response. Because before we decide how to pay for social care, we need to decide what we want social care to be. |
WHAT ELSE IS THERE?
If we want more choice, we also need to notice — and learn from — places that are already doing things differently. Belong is one example. Angela recently visited its Chester service and came away surprised, challenged and, above all, hopeful.
CARE HOMES, CYNICISM, COMMUNITY…AND HOPE!
A visit to Belong
A little scepticism…
Here at WIGO we have an amazing Advisory Group — people who support us and our vision and bring diverse expertise and connections. Vic Rayner is a valued Advisory Group member and CEO of the National Care Forum (NCF), the umbrella body for non-profit care provider organisations.
We try very hard to be neutral on care models and providers: challenging where we need to, but valuing good stuff too. Despite this, Vic spotted that we sometimes had a bit of a downer on the care home model and pushed back with an offer to organise a WIGO trip to an NCF member — all in the name of balance, you understand.
So, a couple of months later, I found myself at Belong Care Village in Chester with Joanna Mawdsley, Advisory Group member; Sue Batty, ally and WIGO ‘doer’; and Vic. We were hosted by Belong’s CEO Martin Rix and Chester Manager Caroline Ray.
I’d like to think we went with open minds — but the reality, for me at least, was a bit more sceptical. My lovely Dad lives with dementia. He is a funny, active, people person who needs a lot of help to live his life. Whenever I consider care homes from his perspective, I think square peg/round hole. That was firmly in my mind as I got off the train in Chester, however hard I tried to dispel it.
So what did we see and learn?
The ‘village’ is not a village. It’s a modern, multi-storey building in the centre of town, overlooking the canal and its bars and restaurants. Automatic ‘swishing’ doors lead straight from the street into a busy café serving hot and cold food and drinks.
I have no idea who the people eating there were, but if I had to guess they were a mix of older people who live in the building, members of the public, staff and people like us — there for a nosy! I got the sense that people from outside didn’t know or care that they were in a care home. Tick.
On the same floor were separate hair and beauty salons, both run by independent professionals renting the space and both used by the public as well as people who live in the building. Caroline told us a lovely story about an older woman living there with dementia. Her granddaughter was getting married, and Grandma hosted all the ‘hens’ in the salon — robes, nails, treatments and gossip. The prosecco flowed and proud Gran sat beaming in the midst, perhaps not even aware that she hadn’t left the building. Delightful.
Another communal space, just off the café, had a bar (with three real ales — tick from my Dad), comfy chairs, board games and space for gatherings and activities. An exercise class was under way when we visited.
Children, community — and rediscovered expertise
Downstairs was the courtyard garden, art studio and… a children’s nursery, complete with rambunctious little boys getting ready for a trip upstairs for a drink and chat with their ‘Grand friends’.
The nursery manager told us about a man in his 90s who had been a carpenter, slowly building the QE2 with small groups of children. They loved the sessions; he revelled in the fun, new relationships and rediscovered expertise. WIGO vision: big tick.
We were told the building had twenty-odd one- and two-bedroom apartments, bought or rented by older people who have access to all the facilities and a supportive community, but who largely live their own lives without support.
And then the ‘care home’ bit…
Not language the people at Belong used — ever. They prefer ‘households’.
There are six self-contained large apartments, two on each floor, with 11 people living in each. Each has a large, ordinary communal kitchen — kettle, fridge, table and the like — a lounge, bedrooms off it (no long corridors), and a balcony with chairs and tables overlooking the canal and town centre.
Staff didn’t wear uniforms, so it wasn’t always immediately obvious who was who. Another thumbs-up from my distant Dad. It was clean and smart but felt ordinary, homely and not too staged or ‘hotel shiny’.
People — including those who live there and children from the nursery — were coming and going, living lives rather than waiting for ‘activities’. WIGO and Dad tick combined.
People move into a household and stay put, forging relationships that endure regardless of how their needs change. Once again the daughter in me nodded in approval. I HATE the thought of ‘moving up a floor’ when things get trickier.
Not perfect — but hopeful
I know it won’t be perfect. Martin and Caroline shared stories of staffing challenges, regulator questions and the enduring struggle of helping people live real lives in communal settings. Making the money stack up is a constant issue too and, as Joanna pointed out, the fees would be well out of reach of many of the people she knows.
BUT I’d like to think my cynical BS radar is highly tuned — from both a professional and a personal perspective — and it didn’t go beep at any point during our visit.
| “I came away with hope: that better is possible, that square holes exist, and that institutions can support and respect at the same time.”
And that my older self — or even my lovely, tricky older Dad — can get help to live our lives our way… as long as we move out West! |