The pandemic has highlighted long-known vulnerabilities of the social care sector and amplified the urgency for reforming its funding system.

A decade after the Dilnot Report called attention to the fact that the finance of social care had been ignored for too long and that the system was "confusing, unfair and unsustainable", the government announced an overhaul to the way adult social care is financed in England.

The government’s proposal, to increase finance for social care through an increase in National Insurance contributions (NICs), has attracted a range of diverging opinions. The speakers will debate current proposals and possible alternatives.

Meet our speakers and chair  

Michelle Dyson is Director General for Adult Social Care. She previously worked as Director of Qualification, Curriculum and Extra Curricular and of Early Years and Childcare in the Department for Education, and as Director of Children, Families and Disadvantage and Disability Director in the Department for Work and Pensions.  

Andrew Dilnot is Warden of Nuffield College Oxford. He was Chairman of the UK Statistics Authority from 2012 to 2017 and Chairman of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, which reported in 2011.  

Nicholas Barr is Professor of Public Economics in the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the author of numerous articles, and author or editor of over 20 books. He has wide-ranging policy experience, including spells at the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils on Demographic Shifts and on Ageing Society. 

Nicholas MacPherson served as the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 2005 to 2016. He was Permanent Secretary to three Chancellors and joined the House of Lords on 4 October 2016. 

Tania Burchardt is Associate Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE), Deputy Director of STICERD, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE. 

More about this event  

This event is part of the LSE Festival: How Do We Get to a Post-COVID World? running from Monday 13 to Saturday 18 June 2022, with a series of events exploring the practical steps we could be taking to shape a better world. 

The LSE School of Public Policy (@LSEPublicPolicy) is an international community where ideas and practice meet. Our approach creates professionals with the ability to analyse, understand and resolve the challenges of contemporary governance. 

Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival

Podcast & Video

A podcast of this event is available to download from Financing Social Care.

A video of this event is available to watch at Financing Social Care.

Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.