Letters to Louise

Dear Louise,

I woke up last week to your welcome voice on Radio 4, talking about the future of social care for older people. It’s been 6 months now since we last heard from you although it seems a lot longer. I am sure you are aware that we were all anxiously waiting to hear your promised initial findings.

Let me start with my story. When I first decided to write you this series of six Letters to Louise, I was fired up with enthusiasm. In many ways I still am. However, like many others now needing health and social care, my life has been taken over by a series of untoward incidents. My partner, David is nearly 80 years old, as I am. He’s a psychologist, film maker and active author. Four months ago, after a lifetime of good health, he became suddenly incapacitated and now urgently needs spinal surgery so that he can walk again. He is totally reliant on me for every aspect of his daily life. Overnight I became his full time carer. As I’m sure you know from your listening exercises, being a carer is exhausting. It has also seriously limited my ability to work in my chosen field of social work. Hence my delay in writing to you. Meanwhile, David is becoming increasingly anxious, being acutely aware that at his age, many of his friends and family are dying and that he may not be a priority for either health or social care. His spinal surgery, necessary so that he can walk again, has now been cancelled twice. We do not currently know why or when it will be rescheduled. I will let you know.

 Many of us have been attending the arranged briefings and discussions to which you have kindly invited us to give our views. All of this, including your style of engagement, listening and co-producing from the outset has been very welcome. You have set the scene well and given us confidence that you are both listening, learning and engaging. Hearing the stories of people’s experiences is vital. However, it is also crucial to base our stories in research and in analytical data across health and social care. More on this in my next letter

Julia Ross is a former practitioner in health and social care and Director of Social Services in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. She is author of When People Die, a book for children,  Call the Social (2022) and her first novel, The Laughing Robot ( 2024).  She is currently Chair of BASW UK and while she writes this in her capacity as an individual and author, drawing on her professional experiences, the views here are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official position of BASW UK.