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The truth is that no one wants to foot the bill for long-term care in an ageing society. A mere handful of nations have grasped the nettle and set about comprehensively redesigning the way they deliver and pay for care. Germany and Japan are two countries that have implemented social insurance schemes. Both can teach the UK lessons. But if we are looking for a country that has recognised the scale of the challenge of an ageing society, it is China. I have just returned from a week-long visit to China with Innovate UK, to learn how the country is tackling this challenge. China is experiencing rapid ageing as life expectancy rises and, due to the one-child policy, birth rates have fallen. As a…

Grief is a difficult subject to deal with at the best of times, but how should companies handle employees who are grieving at work? In 2017, a devastating incident occurred in Portland, Oregon, leaving two men dead. Stephanie Blakey, a senior HR business partner with the Cadmus Group, soon discovered that one of the men who had died was an employee in her company’s Portland office. Blakey spoke about this at Workhuman 2019 alongside grief and trauma consultant Jennifer Crow. Together, they went through the process of how to deal with the extremely sensitive issue of what to do when a co-worker dies. While an incredibly sombre topic, it was one of the most compelling sessions at the conference for me, and I heard…

The received wisdom is that adults and carers are experiencing significant unmet care and support needs, and more resources are needed to address the problem. In England, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) says so, and figures produced by Age UK are often quoted in the national press – “A million older people ‘badly let down’ by lack of social care funding”, one article read. In light of this, it could be expected that the numbers of people complaining to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) about local authorities refusing to meet their care and support needs would be relatively high. Yet, very few people actually complain about decisions not to meet their needs where these do not meet the eligibility…

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