The future pattern of adult social care continues to raise major issues for the way we live as a society, with no comprehensive solution in sight to overcome current problems.

The Dilnot commission was the most recent high-level inquiry to describe the present arrangements as unsustainable. I first started grappling with this subject professionally in 1968, never anticipating we would be without a fully-accessible, comprehensive or affordable system when I myself could become a service-user in just a few years' time.