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A majority of social care professionals want older people in England to receive free personal care, an exclusive Community Care pre-election poll has found.

The survey found 59 per cent supported the policy, which is in place in Scotland and backed by the Liberal Democrats, but has been ruled out by Labour and for the first three years by the Conservatives.

Professionals are divided on Labour's performance on older people since 1997: 54 per cent said it had been at least fairly good and 46 per cent that it had been poor.

Most worryingly for a government committed to improving services for the poorest pensioners, 70 per cent said its performance on quality of life for older people on low incomes had been poor.

With commentators expecting prime minister Tony Blair to call a 5 May election next week, campaigners believe older people could determine the result.

Help the Aged estimates that one-third of votes will be cast by people older than 60, while an Age Concern survey found two-thirds of over-55s were certain to vote, compared with under 40 per cent of younger people.
Both organisations have called on the major parties to put at the heart of their campaigns increasing pensioner incomes, fighting ageism and promoting independence through improved social care.

But the campaign is also likely to concentrate on the impact of an ageing population on public services which, according to our survey, should be a big concern for all of the major parties.

It found that more than 92 per cent of professionals believe social services are not prepared for the growing numbers of older people.

• Community Care surveyed 1,096 social care professionals on a range of election issues. Further results will be released in the weeks ahead.