An ageing population and spiralling health and social care costs pose a formidable challenge for countries like the UK – which, say campaigners, is being exacerbated by privatised system which leads to capital extraction by outsourced providers.
Voices from the co-op movement have long opposed this capitalised system, advocating a mutually owned model instead – exemplified by the likes of Equal Care Co-op, based in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. At last year’s conference of the Co-operative Councils Innovation Network, Equal Care’s Emma Back urged councils to used their devolved powers to commission from co-ops, and offer co-operative social care instead of letting outsourcers – often owned by foreign equity companies – extract money from communities.
Similar voices have come from within politics. At the 2022 Co-op Congress, Labour/Co-op mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “The profit motive does not sit well with care of any kind – that’s the problem. The more complex the needs, the more that profit motivation becomes a problem. This is a broken system.”
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