Pathways into Informal Care Provision

Abstract

In England informal care is pivotal to the care provision system. Population ageing contributes to growing demands for social care, in addition to the rising cost of health care, and government policy are therefore increasingly relying on informal carers. The patterns of informal care provision, carers’ characteristics and the impact of care provision have been studied to a large extent, nevertheless little is known about the dynamic pathways into informal care provision, which is a central part of ensuring future care provision.

Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) Waves 4 (2009) to 7 (2015), this thesis aims to explore the pathways into informal care by individuals aged 50 and over, in order to better understand possible predictors of short and longer-term transitions into the caring role. The research used bi- and multivariate cross-sectional analysis of Wave 7 and multivariate longitudinal statistical analysis of Waves 4 to 7.

The results showed that 18% (N=1,604) of the sample in Wave 7 had provided informal care within the last week. The longitudinal analysis showed a high short-term (between 2013 and 2015) turnover of carers entering and leaving the caring role. Longer-term (between 2011 and 2015) transitions revealed that almost 40% of the ‘repeating carers’ had transitioned between caring for different care-recipients, suggesting a ‘serial carer’ effect. Informal carers were found to be in better self-reported health prior to initiating the role compared to non-carers, which points to evidence of a ‘healthy carer effect’. Among working carers, remaining in part-time employment was associated with repeated care provision, implying that part-time employment may be a pathway into informal care, however when age was controlled for, this effect was no longer significant.

This thesis adds new evidence to our understanding of dynamic care provision patterns and the effects of care provision. It is recommended that policymakers take a holistic approach to policies supporting carers and consider the highly complex and individual journey both into and out of care provision.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Athina Vlachantoni: orcid.org/0000-0003-1539-3057

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