Social Protection for the 21st Century: Towards a New Politics of Care

6 February 2023

Henrietta L. Moore and Alexandra Boothroyd

Warnings that the UK is facing a ‘crisis of care’ are growing in volume. NHS wait times have reached a record high, and staff shortages across the social care workforce are predicted to rise to 500,000 by the end of 2030, as poor working conditions and the lowest wages of almost any sector in the UK make these careers increasingly unsustainable. The shortfall is being met by the most vulnerable, and over 350,000 people aged 16-25 in England and Wales now provide unpaid care to a loved one (BMA, 2022). This IGP working paper unpicks the UK’s care crisis, using London’s tuberculosis (TB) rate as a case study. We argue that the crisis extends beyond health and social care: the UK is experiencing a breakdown of its social protection system, as the state fails to fulfil its duty of care.

Read the working paper