What if care economies really cared?
Questions to stimulate collective imagining
This piece is part of our visualising change series (read more about it here). It was written in 2023 and reflects our thinking at that time.
The graphic we share here is from our publication Seeding Futures for Wellbeing and asks ‘What if Care Economies Really Cared?’
We offer the publication as a collective imagination starter kit across seven themes. We’re pulling some of the graphics out on their own to give them some space and hopefully spark some imagining.
How might we cultivate a care economy that genuinely values and supports caregivers, promotes wellbeing for care recipients, and builds a more compassionate and equitable society? What better futures could we imagine if we opened up spaces for collective imagination and deliberation in this area?
One of the shifts the global pandemic has catalysed is a deeper recognition and appreciation of the critical role of care workers in society. The pandemic has not only raised the profile of the care sectors, it has generated widespread discussions about the need to improve their working conditions and the overall care infrastructure.
In Australia the so called ‘care economy’ covers sectors such as aged care, disability services, family services, child care, social housing, homelessness services, mental health services — it employs around 1.8million people, and is the fastest growing employing sector (Care Economy CRC, 2022).
It is also likely to continue to expand and face significant challenges as the population ages and demands increase. Government is a major investor in and provider of services within the care economy, in addition to playing a significant role in regulation and quality assurance. In many ways, for much of this growing part of the economy Government has played a major shaping, creating, designing role — and has led the development of markets within care sectors.
The care sector plays a crucial role in supporting individuals, families and communities, enabling economic, social and workforce participation, and contributing to the overall wellbeing of the Australian population. Yet this sector faces some major challenges over coming decades — around workforce availability, structure and capability, the quality of services and community expectations, and the availability, use and integration of technology into various sectors.
The care economy is highly feminised in terms of the labour force — and, as was highlighted in the Ageing Royal Commission, it is plagued by lower than average incomes and poor working conditions.
Further, measures such as productivity in this sector of the economy are woefully inadequate — it is quality of care and outcomes for people and families that we need to measure and report on as key measures of success, not outputs per hour. Essentially, if the care economy is to contribute to equity, wellbeing and sustainability we will need to ensure that it truly is about care and caring.
On p23 of Seeding Futures for Wellbeing we share a set of potential starting points that could form the basis for discussions and imaginings including:
- How could care infrastructures be reimagined and transformed to ensure that care industries promote equity, accessibility, affordability and quality for both carers and care recipients?
- How could stronger prevention infrastructure be built into the care system, which recognises and invests in social determinants of health, wellbeing promotion and ecosystems of care?
- How could business models and structures that enable caring cultures and engender the business of caring, such as cooperatives, employee-owned businesses, or networked organisations be grown and scaled (like the example we share Care Together https://caretogether.coop/ )?
And in this graphic we imagine what a care economies that really cared might look like. Let’s unlock our imaginations and collectively think about how we might biodegrade old systems no longer fit-for-purpose, and steward in new ones like these.
