Congratulations to Fei Lui who passed her PhD viva in January.
Fei is based at the Centre for Health Economics (CHE), The University of York. Her research focused on self-funding for social care and informal care provision and its impact on the social distribution of health, supervised by Professor Laura Bojke (The University of York) and Dr Matthew Franklin (The University of Sheffield).
Her PhD: The market failure of social care – using England as a case study to explore unmet need
Addressing challenges in the social care system, e.g., unaffordable costs of care, vulnerable care supply, and fragmented health and social care, is essential for the sustainability of public health and the welfare system. This research examines the need, utilisation, and unmet need arising from the public-private mixed market for social care in England. A conceptual framework with working definitions for social care need, demand, supply, and utilisation was developed to provide a theoretical foundation. This framework also suggests indicators for measuring each concept and explores sources of unmet need.
Data-driven methods were used to identify predictive models for social care need, utilisation, and unmet need, using cohort data from community-dwelling older adults. The predictive models were generalised through a simulation study to predict the need, utilisation, and unmet need across a broader population of older adults in England. Policy-relevant scenarios were simulated to explore the potential impact of changing population characteristics.
Findings from this research suggest that the current system might only be able to support the most disadvantaged individuals, leaving those who need help but ineligible for publicly funded social care with unmet need. Policymakers should consider whether neglecting this group will worsen the existing pressures on both the health and social care sectors when people with unmet social care need require acute healthcare or more intensive social care in the future.