With an election upon us the tensions between short and long term change feel more in focus. For those of us asking questions about the foundations of our economy, there’s no time for quick fixes that will keep us off course.

Since starting Care Full earlier this year, we’ve felt the upcoming election looming large and, to be honest, not known quite how to approach it. On countless occasions we’ve talked between ourselves about how we might reconcile immediate and longer-term needs. This tension is age old, particularly in complex systems where short term fixes might have unintended consequences for the future.

For us, the challenge shows up in how we simultaneously support collective work to improve the experience of those who care in the here and now, whilst also rethinking how to fundamentally centre care in our economy, so that any such improvement has a better chance of success. 

Take Carers Allowance as an example. In recent months, the debt scandal around this benefit has gained significant media traction. The increased attention on the support carers receive might prove fertile ground for meaningful reform and feels the most promising space in the discussion around care. There is broad consensus across civil society about what these changes might be – cancelling the debts accrued, increasing the level of carers allowance, reducing the work limits and replacing hard income thresholds with tapering rates – and external pressure to act. There is clearly fertile ground here for those working with unpaid carers to lobby for something that could start to show benefits relatively soon.

But, there are risks that come with centring this discussion around the reform to Carers Allowance rather than a wider reform to our understanding of the social security system as a whole. If we focus purely on Carers Allowance, are we complicit in accepting that there should be a single benefit around an economically defined concept of care? What bolder ideas does that framing rule out?

At Care Full, we believe a broader rethinking of care and its relationship with the economy will be critical to shifting the dial on each of these policy areas. At its core, this means moving beyond the extractive forces of capitalism that currently shape our lives and exploring a new, fairer and more caring economy. Ideas like the wellbeing economy, universal basic income and services and alternatives to GDP are just some of the progressive ideas offering a window into a different normal, each with their own potential for care.

Working towards this will require currently siloed policy interventions to be part of a coordinated, systemic shift on care. And, thinking about systemic change might lead us to entirely different conclusions to today’s problems.

That’s because achieving this means holding focus on the problematic mindsets churning under the surface, upholding our current approach to care. These mindsets play an insidious role across all parts of our economy, and serve to expand our understanding of what a caring society is, beyond the formal structures and institutions of health and social care. A more caring society, for example, won’t be one where a genocide dodges discussion in political campaigns or where local democracy is sidelined. The start of this campaigning period shows in fact how little acts of care and compassion are part of the discourse. 

In our view, there’s a long way for the major parties to go before there’s a real discussion about what an economy fit for the 21st century looks like, let alone a reckoning with what that means for care. Manifestos released over recent weeks typically sideline care into a limited understanding of social care, with cursory ideas for change where any chance of success is hidden in yet to be revealed detail. Here, caution needs to be taken when we feel the pull of quick wins which might undermine this bigger picture. And, in the worst cases, no mention of unpaid care is made at all, highlighting the disconnect between the reality of care in our society and the policy frameworks the highest levels of government imagine our future within.

So, where does that leave us? 

As we run up to the election we’ll be thinking about the things Care Full endorse as foundational to a better future, and the things we actively campaign on. The former will sit more in the traditional policy landscape, and we can take confidence many others are working in these, whilst the latter are more systemic and the work more emergent. 

To add shape to that systemic work, we’ve published our anti-manifesto, which defines the large-scale changes we want to see parties reaching for. In it, we have explored how a whole economy approach to care, redistribution and reformed social security can all shape a fairer society but only if they are matched with true vision for change. We hope to jostle those working on these issues to think more ambitiously, knowing our work spans the years ahead not just the weeks.

If you’re also interested in how to challenge the narratives in this election, and to push forward towards a more caring campaign, we’d love to hear from you.