To say that Baroness Sally Greengross’s CV and list of achievements is extensive would be an understatement.
A condensed list sent over of the roles she has undertaken and accolades she has achieved in her 77 years, takes up three sides of A4 paper and it is clear that she has no plans to slow down any time soon.
Perhaps most recognised for her work campaigning for issues concerned with ageing – including her previous role as director general at Age Concern – Lady Greengross’s work started at the opposite end of the scale.
She explained: “When I was younger, my work and volunteering that I did was to do with young people who were in trouble with the law, for example. I was fascinated with the young. I then went to university a second time – I had been a linguist first time round – and stayed on to do research.”
Lady Greengross admitted that even though she was supposed to be doing a doctorate at the time, she spent more time preparing for lectures than doing research and that she “was not really a great researcher”.
She added: “I had a big fat grant as one did in those days, so I sent it back and applied for a job and the first one I got was with Age Concern as an assistant director. It was great, but I knew nothing about ageing and older people because I had always focused on young people and families with young children. But I realised after a bit that actually it did not matter – it is all the same. It is people; you adjust the differences.”
Lady Greengross explained that through her role in introducing social enterprise at Age Concern – the main current source of income for Age UK – she was interested in financial services from the start.
She added: “We started with insurance from a very small scale for people who did not even have contents insurance. It grew and grew and now it is huge.”
Lady Greengross was clearly passionate about what she explained as the “huge difficulty” of how to get adequate care to people as they become frail, as is apparent with her involvement in Andrew Dilnot’s proposals into funding for long-term care.
She said: “I was very pleased to be involved with Andrew and now currently on the pre-legislative scrutiny for the Care and Support Bill. It is very time consuming, but absolutely essential.”
On 13 February Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt delivered the long-awaited announcement on long-term care, in the form of a proposed spending cap of £75,000 set for those having to fund their own care costs from 2017.
However, this was not the announcement that Lady Greengross was hoping for, and she said that it is not going to deal with long-term care in the way that many people had hoped.
She added: “The announcement on Dilnot from the government really isn’t helping. It seems to be aimed at people having to sell their own homes and it won’t apply to basic accommodation costs. Also the cap is very high, so I am not sure that is going to really help people planning for their old age.”
It is Lady Greengross’ belief that the proposals cannot work unless the industry is centrally involved with long-term care.
She continued: “We need to find a way that the industry feels they can come in, and Dilnot will make that possible because there will be a known risk – something that insurers need. But there are lots of adjustments that we need to look at to make the industry really enthusiastic and make them come in. They are the key to making this work and it has to work because there is a huge crisis: it is here now and it is looming even larger if we do not get it right.”
However, Lady Greengross said that since the government’s announcement on the cap, that there has not been any enthusiasm from the industry, something that she finds “upsetting”.
She added: “There doesn’t seem any rush to get involved and I think we need the industry to make this work. It would be really good if people were aware enough to realise that many are going to need some care and that we need to insure against that. Automated payments, a small amount from when you start work, would be my vision, that is what I would like to see, that we insure against care costs in the same way that we insure against fire or loss, for example.”
Moving onto her involvement with the International Longevity Centre – which Lady Greengross said has a good reputation and “punches well above its weight” – she said she is “very proud” of her involvement to introduce policies that will effectively manage fairly and positively the growing ageing of society.
She added: “I love the ILC and I am pleased to help really grow it. As well as being chief executive, I am also one of the two presidents of the whole global alliance; the other one is in South Africa, so we can look at the policy across the globe and not just in our countries but in emerging counties and developing countries as well.”
She admitted that she is a “very busy” person, but when questioned, it is clear that Lady Greengross would not have it any other way.
She said: “I am so privileged to have such an interesting life. If I was saying anything about ageing, if you have got a reason to get up in the morning that is brilliant, and I am learning all the time. So while I can do, I will continue.”
Lady Greengross concluded: “The situation regarding care is desperate and if nothing is happening until 2017, that is a long time. The ILC will try and make sure that these issues are raised at as high a level as possible. Care is so important and it ought to be nearer to what Dilnot recommended than it looks as though it will be. It is a shame if it is not.”
Amy Ellis is a former senior features writer of Financial Adviser
CV
1957 European electronics industry
Marketing
1973 London School of Economics
Researcher and lecturer
1977 Age Concern
Director General
Deputy director 1977-1987. Eurolink Age secretary general 1987-2001. International Federation on Ageing secretary general 1982-1987 and vice president 1987-2000. Age Concern Institute of gerontology at Kings College London joint chair 1987-2001. Founder of Age Concern initiatives Age Resource, Employers Forum on Age, Action on Elder Abuse, Ageing Well, Millennium Debate of the Age
2000 Member of the House of Lords
2000 International Longevity Centre
Chief executive
2008 Equality and Human Rights Commission
Commissioner
2010 ILC Global Alliance
Co-president
