By Keith Sellick
While the sight of panicking city traders and so-called "masters of the universe" gives me some enjoyment, I know that the tottering world finance system will hit us all - 90% of us will be taxed to bail out the profits of the top 10%. One only has to look at the $700 billion US bailout to see what governments are willing to do for the rich.
So what about social care?
Already charities in the US and UK are losing money and volunteers for many inner city programmes. Those projects in London's East End that rely on the goodwill of the high fliers of the City of London are now appearing to be unviable.
And despite upbeat noises earlier in the year, quite where will the voluntary sector obtain its money given we will all be tightening our belts more? Even the bigger charities that rely to a large part on govenrment funding may find the tap turned off.
Local authorities will be squeezed, cutting back on services. We have already many examples of tightening eligibility criteria and rising costs for adults services and this is bound to continue.
Meanwhile, the great roll out of personalisation has already been accused of being a cost cutting exercise. And, in a period of a recession, it must be attractive to both councils and the state to offload care and services onto individuals, backed up with slogans and ideology of individual responsibility and "standing on your own two feet" (a la Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s).
Therefore, we can expect the structure and nature of social care to change radically over the next two to three years precisely because of the recession.
In addition to all this, we will experience more debt and poverty, (remember even at the height of a boom in the past two years, poverty among some sections of the population has risen) along with other social ills such as drugs/alcohol abuse and racism.
So, like most of the rest of the population, social care staff will be working even harder with a declining standard of living.
Thanks, bankers.
Already charities in the US and UK are losing money and volunteers for many inner city programmes. Those projects in London's East End that rely on the goodwill of the high fliers of the City of London are now appearing to be unviable.
And despite upbeat noises earlier in the year, quite where will the voluntary sector obtain its money given we will all be tightening our belts more? Even the bigger charities that rely to a large part on govenrment funding may find the tap turned off.
Local authorities will be squeezed, cutting back on services. We have already many examples of tightening eligibility criteria and rising costs for adults services and this is bound to continue.
Meanwhile, the great roll out of personalisation has already been accused of being a cost cutting exercise. And, in a period of a recession, it must be attractive to both councils and the state to offload care and services onto individuals, backed up with slogans and ideology of individual responsibility and "standing on your own two feet" (a la Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s).
Therefore, we can expect the structure and nature of social care to change radically over the next two to three years precisely because of the recession.
In addition to all this, we will experience more debt and poverty, (remember even at the height of a boom in the past two years, poverty among some sections of the population has risen) along with other social ills such as drugs/alcohol abuse and racism.
So, like most of the rest of the population, social care staff will be working even harder with a declining standard of living.
Thanks, bankers.
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