Millions of older volunteers 'plug gaps’ in social care

More than five million over-60s carry out regular volunteer work as local authorities cut back on care.

Britain will become increasingly reliant on millions of older volunteers to help with social care for an ageing population, according to recent research from the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS).

Latest figures from the RVS show that around 5.2 million people aged over 60 carry out unpaid charity work on a regular basis to help fellow older people in hospitals and in their homes, carrying out vital tasks ranging from delivering meals and community transport schemes to befriending and assisting people when they are discharged from hospital.

Projected population growth in Britain suggests that the number of over-80s will almost treble by 2030, and this taken together with continuing cuts in social care means that older volunteers will be essential to assisting with the growing need for social care.

RVS public affairs manager Steve Smith said: “Local authorities are having a very difficult time at the moment and have had to make some difficult choices about social care spending in the last few years, which according to our figures has resulted around 400,000 fewer people receiving social care services since 2006-7.

“When you add to that the fact that the number of over-80s is going to rise from three million today to eight million by 2050, there is going to be an increasing role for the voluntary sector to plug the gaps.”

Local authorities cut spending on adult social care by two per cent in between 2012 and 2013, according to the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Yet the need for social care continues to increase sharply with older people becoming more isolated as the “social glue” of tight-knit families and communities continues to lose its cohesion when younger people move away for work and so on.

The RVS is eager to underline the fact that older people make a significant contribution to the economy. Recent research suggested that over-65s made a net contribution of £40bn to the economy through taxes and spending, a figure expected to rise to £77bn by 2030. And unpaid work by the over 60s is estimated to contribute the equivalent of £10bn.

Mr Smith would like to see volunteering taken more seriously by service providers and commissioners and proper strategies developed for the management of volunteers. He said: “Often volunteering is not taken seriously as a resource. But as the numbers show, it is a valuable resource that effectively complements the social care and health care on offer.”

Later this week the Duchess of Cornwall will present awards to some of the country’s volunteers at a reception in Lancaster House in her role as president of the RVS, which was formerly the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service. The Diamond Champion scheme was set up during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee to recognise the increasingly vital work of over-60s in social care.