From Dilnot to the Dementia Tax and Beyond: Why social care reform keeps going wrong

Wednesday, 10 June 2026, 4.30pm to 6pm

This presentation will look at the history of adult social care reform over the past 15 years through the prism of public attitudes to social care. It will show that public prioritisation of social care is typically low but punctuated by occasional peaks when government reform proposals bring the issue to greater attention. It will also show, however, that these occasions have tended to focus on the cost of reform and how money will be raised, and have ended badly for the governments concerned. As a result, politicians have concluded that social care reform is a vote loser rather than a vote winner. The presentation will propose ways in which the social care sector can break this logjam.

Speaker(s): Simon Bottery (The King's Fund)

Series: Conversations on Care

Venue: Green Templeton College - EP Abraham Lecture Theatre - EP Abraham Lecture Theatre Green Templeton College Woodstock Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 6HG United Kingdom

Department: Green Templeton College (College)

Register here: https://www.gtc.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/event/from-dilnot-to-the-dementia-tax-and-beyond/