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Amidst funding restructures, privatisation and the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK’s public services are increasingly undergoing change. From care home homes and emergency services to hospitals and schools, the pressures on the people delivering this care is ever-present.

So what does the future hold for social care and the family support services provided by schools? How will this impact the most vulnerable in society? And what can be done to prevent crises in our social services deepening?

The ��������’s podcast returns with a new series this April. In the first episode, Dr Bethany Simmonds and Dr Emma Maynard share their insights and perspectives on two vital areas of social support in the UK.

Bethany’s social theory approach to studying clinical decision-making, end of life care and experiences of the ageing population has given her a unique insight into the systemic issues of many care services today. She says that the pandemic has highlighted weaknesses in the healthcare systems of different countries and that poorly structure or opaque systems are putting people at risk here in the UK:

In the podcast Bethany explains her surprising findings when contrasting healthcare systems with different kinds of welfare state. She looked at how waves of Neo Liberalisation in the Global North have played out national policy and discovered that even socially democratic welfare states were relying on outsourced provision of care.

Bethany’s research highlighted that insurance-based systems such as the one in Germany had fewer failings for some of the most vulnerable in society during the pandemic.

Emma Maynard is a Senior Lecturer in Child and Family Studies and her research has been looking at how primary and secondary schools are able to respond to the social and healthcare needs of families. Here too the pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated a system under strain:

The joint issues created by increased demand for social support and an increase in reporting and monitoring means that teaching staff have been struggling to cope. Emma celebrates the work of schools to support children and families but says that in the face of funding cuts the UK faces more and more people leaving the profession, unable to cope with the increased load on this area of public service.

Whereas both Emma and Bethany agree that supporting workers delivering care with more funding, training and resources is key, Bethany adds that systemic restructures could hold the key to solving our problems. She shares examples of care and support schemes offered in other countries and suggests diversifying this with different kinds of independent charity sector organisations.

You can listen to the full podcast and hear the interviews with Emma and Bethany from Tuesday 26 April 2022.

Search for “Life Solved” from the �������� on your podcast app of choice, and why not share this story with a friend who might be interested.