Politicians are avoiding the real problems with social care

‘The smell would be even worse’, says Zoe, the social worker I’m shadowing for the week, ‘were it not for the clothes.’ Trying not to touch or breathe, I survey the mounds of sweaters and jeans and dresses interspersed across the bare floorboards. The place is a disaster — junk everywhere, filling the shelves, piling up the surfaces; the sound of broken taps from the kitchen; the living room a living ruin.

I’m on a housing estate in one of the Home Counties and we’ve been called out to see about putting in place a ‘preventative measure’ for Mrs R, a 90 year-old woman at risk of falls. Not having to leap Beecher’s Brook every time she needs a wash will reduce the likelihood of a hip fractures (bad for the NHS) — a logic even I can compute. So we’re there to measure up for a level-access shower.

But, in truth, measuring up for a shower feels like plugging a damn with a finger.