Jon Glasby and colleagues suggest short and long term measures to tackle the invisibility of adult social care
In December 2022, the UK House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee argued that adult social care (box 1) is largely “invisible”: something that happens behind closed doors, that is about “them” rather than “us,” and that is poorly understood by the public, the media, and policy makers.1 Among many examples of this from their report was the view of Jeremy Hunt, former secretary of state for health and social care, that the invisibility of adult social care is “deeply entrenched” in our society. Another example was a November 2021 survey including 1561 unpaid family carers in the UK that suggested over 90% feel ignored by government.2 A written submission from the Health Foundation to the committee reported that members of the public had a limited understanding of social care, had not thought about their own future care needs, and wrongly thought that future ca