Robin Means

From community care to market care? The development of welfare services for older people

Means was lead applicant for this ESRC study which covered the development of welfare services for older people in England and Wales from the introduction of social services departments in 1971 through to the implementation of the community care changes in 1993. Professor John Baldock chose it as his 2002 book of the year for SPA News because of how its detailed analysis challenged the assumptions of community care commentators from both the left and the right.

Financial Management and Elderly People with Dementia in the U.K.: As Much a Question of Confusion as Abuse?

This article explores a range of issues relating to financial management and elderly people with dementia. The law relating to personal finances for those who lack capacity is outlined and discussed with a stress upon its complexity and the key gaps in present coverage. The article goes on to outline findings from research on these issues carried out within a social services authority in the north of England. Professionals were found to have a wide range of anxieties relating to what they felt was the financial abuse of their elderly clients with dementia, as well as more general concern about how best to deal with financial issues for this group on a day to day basis. The financial abuse of elderly people does occur, but the article concludes by arguing that the issues raised by the research are wider for three main reasons. First, relatives and professionals are often ignorant or confused by the options available to them rather than being intent on defrauding elderly people. Second, the desire to hand down and to receive money from the one generation to the next is a powerful force in society and elderly people with dementia may wish their children rather than the state to have their money. And third, fee assessment and collection for this group raise real practical challenges to social services.

From poor law to community care. The development of welfare services for elderly people 1939 - 1971

Recent community care changes have raised fundamental issues about the changing role of the public, voluntary and informal sectors in the provision of social care to frail elderly people. They have also raised issues about the health and social care interface, how to ration services and the respective roles of residential care and care at home. The purpose of this book is to set these debates in the context of the historical growth of welfare services from the outbreak of the Second World War through to the establishment of social services departments in April 1971. Based upon extensive research on primary services such as the Public Records Office and interviews with key actors, separate chapters look at the impact of the Second World War; the 1948 National Assistance Act; issues in residential care; issues in domiciliary care; and the creation of social services departments.

Policy convergence: restructuring long-term care in Australia and the UK

The article was the product of a long standing collaboration with Diane Gibson from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in Canberra, Australia. Policy and Politics was chosen since the article was designed to contribute not only to debates about long term care for older people but also to debates about policy convergence in policy studies more generally.

Older people in British housing studies: Rediscovery and emerging issues for research

Abstract This paper refers to an increased interest in older people in British housing research and literature. It explains the factors behind this increased interest and illustrates why a gerontological perspective in housing studies is needed. Reference is made in particular to issues of accumulation through housing, to housing histories and to the meaning of the home. In addition to defining areas where a clearer understanding is required the paper identifies the need for a more general re‐evaluation of age as a key variable in housing and of the way that older people are treated in studies of housing.

Home independence and community care: Time for a wider vision?

This article begins by looking at past policy assumptions about the importance of home and independence to older people. It is shown that it has long been argued that older people should stay in their own homes as long as possible but that this was not backed up with domiciliary services because of concerns that this would enable families to push caring responsibilities onto the state. The second half of the article looks at present day assumptions on this issue as addressed by the 1990 National Health Service and Community Care Act and compares this to what older people themselves have to say. By drawing on research on 39 older households the importance of home as a place of privacy and self identity is illustrated as is the rich and varied lives of these respondents both inside and outside their homes. It is argued that local authorities as the lead agencies in community care should help to foster such independence and that this requires them to develop a broad vision of community care which covers issues such as transport, leisure and household maintenance.

From Special Needs Housing to Independent Living

Abstract How best to combine housing and support services for frail elderly people and for people with learning difficulties, mental health problems and physical disabilities is a long established debate in most industrialised countries. This debate occurs in the context of concerns to identify the extent of unmet need through such mechanisms as ‘special needs’ housing surveys. This article draws upon a ‘special needs’ housing survey. However, the emphasis is not upon the ‘facts’ uncovered about existing provision and levels of unmet need, but rather about the principles which need to underpin local policy debates and the implication of these for service developments at the locality level. The principles proposed include a commitment to citizenship, the need to combine appropriate housing with appropriate support and the importance of partnership with service users. The final section of the article explores the implications of such principles for policy developments at the local level by discussing survey...

Community care, housing and older people: Continuity or change?

Abstract This paper outlines the growth of social care services for elderly people in Britain and the slow recognition that resources should be concentrated upon ‘care at home’ rather than in institutions. It then goes on to provide a critical commentary on the proposed community care changes with their emphasis upon contracting out services. The importance of housing to older people is then discussed and this is followed by a review of both past developments and future prospects for the housing dimension of community care.

From public assistance institutions to "Sunshine Hotels"

This article traces the development of residential care for elderly people in the period 1939 to 1948. It begins by looking at the nature of such institutions in the period just prior to the Second World War and then discusses the complex impact of war upon such provision. Particular attention is paid to how evacuation hostels, run by local authorities and voluntary organisations, changed notions about the role of the State in the care of elderly people. The paper concludes by looking at how such changed notions were incorporated into the 1948 National Assistance Act.

Council Housing, Tenure Polarisation and Older People in Two Contrasting Localities

This article attempts to illustrate the importance of housing issues in old age and to argue for a more sophisticated view of older people than that achieved by much housing research. Tenure relationships in two contrasting localities are explored and it is shown that cruder models of social and tenurial polarisation need to be treated with care because of the tendency for aggregate data to hide important variations in relationships between tenures and within tenures. Many older people wish to enter local authority council housing and they have strong views on what is the ‘best’ and ‘worst5property on offer.