Tom Richmond: We all need to do more for elderly, but that doesn’t let Mr Hunt off the hook

Jeremy Hunt, the increasingly influential Health Secretary, certainly thinks it is the former. In a widely publicised speech in Harrogate, he effectively challenged families to do more to wake up to their responsibilities.

Citing the experience of his Chinese-born wife, Hunt said he had been “struck by the reverence and respect for older people in Asian culture” where it is “quite normal” for elderly parents to live with their children.

He also observed “the Indian government has even announced recently that it plans to name and shame people who abandon their parents”.

Yes, this supposedly rising star of the Conservative Party accepted that there will be “occasions where it’s right and necessary for older people to go into care homes”, but the key passage of his speech came when he spoke about the need for a new “social contract”.

His words are worth repeating: “If we are to tackle the challenge of an ageing society, we must…restore and reinvigorate the social contract between generations. And uncomfortable though it is to say it, it will only start with changes in the way we personally treat our own parents and grandparents.”

To summarise, Hunt was reminding society that families have a duty to look after their kin as he spoke at length of how loneliness was afflicting up to five million pensioners.

Although most families pull together at such times, there was a glaring omission in the Hunt thesis – the fact that society has become more transient, and lifestyles more hectic, compared to 20 years ago as people struggle to strike the right work-life balance. Take these questions that I asked of my own conscience after the Minister’s thought-provoking intervention:

Do I spend enough time with
my parents who are in their
mid-70s? Probably not, although they do live over 200 miles away from Yorkshire. I know, a lame excuse.

Do I spend enough time talking to my family about their future wishes when their health declines? Probably not, it’s the awkward question that I have not faced up to. Another black mark against my name.

Do I have room in my own house for my parents to stay during the latter years of their lives? Probably not in a two-bed semi with steep stairs.

Do I spend enough time working out how I will make ends meet when I reach retirement age in just under three decades time? Probably not. Another failure.

Do I spend enough time popping round to see my elderly neighbours? Probably not. They’re a lovely couple who take parcels in, but one is acutely conscious of not wanting to be intrusive. Is this right or wrong under the Hunt doctrine? I’m not sure.

Perhaps the next question is do I have time, as a full-time professional in a challenging job, to fulfil my obligations to the Minister’s “social contract”?

Probably not, but I realise I’m the type of person that Jeremy Hunt had in his sights when he spoke in North Yorkshire.

Yet, even if myself and others in similar circumstances spend more time with their parents, face up to uncomfortable questions about care and run errands for neighbours, will it make a material difference to the fabric of society?

Yes, but it will only work if there is also fundamental reform by the Government so that elderly care becomes a political priority rather than an after-thought trotted out by Ministers now and again to gain some favourable headlines.

After all, it was ironic that Hunt’s wide-ranging speech came on the day that a coroner ruled that 19 elderly parents died amid “institutionalised abuse” at a care home – just the latest in a long list of care scandals that ended with the same old “lessons will be learned” excuse.

And it is significant that the Department of Health’s advance PR briefing ahead of the Minister’s speech did not include this admission from Hunt: “I recognise there have been cuts in funding to local authorities as we seek to deal with the deficit. Perhaps less recognised is that funding per head for adult social care fell under the last government too.”

After deflecting this responsibility onto others, Hunt talked about the onset of local social care plans that “will have to offer genuinely integrated care: joint commissioning, joint provision, seven-day services, full record-sharing and professionals accountable for seamless joined-up care”.

Here we go again. Yet another upheaval that shifts the balance of policy responsibility from the Department of Health to local authorities that are already making unpalatable cuts to elderly services because of financial pressures.

I hope it works – services need to reflect local demographics and I have previously argued for the introduction of elected health commissioners to represent the public – but I have my doubts when you look at the number of Whitehall departments that will still be involved in this process.

There’s the Department of Health (Jeremy Hunt) that governs hospitals; the Department for Communities and Local Government (Eric Pickles) that allocates council grants; the Department of Work and Pensions (Iain Duncan Smith) which manages benefits; the Treasury (George Osborne) which sets budgets for Whitehall departments and the Prime Minister (David Cameron) who dictates the overall vision. And this is before I name-check the Lib Dems in each policy sphere.

Given the growing significance of this issue, is it not time to streamline this process so there is a single Minister for the Aged sitting in the Cabinet?.

If Hunt is right when he says families, and neglectful people like myself should do more, is it possible to expect – even demand – more effective policy and leadership in return? The number of elderly people in future is likely to outstrip the combined populations of Scotland (5.3m), Wales (3m) and Northern Ireland (1.8m) – and Cabinet-ranked Ministers represent them all.

Why not the elderly? After all, the number of people aged over 65 will top 13 million by 2030 and five million residents, the equivalent of Scotland’s entire population, are so lonely that the television – according to no less an authority than Jeremy Hunt – is their main form of company.