One in three inhabitants in France will be over 60 years old by 2050, compared to 1 in 5 today. While the percentage of elderly in the population doubles over the coming decades, the number of people within the family able to look over them decreases. The number of elderly dependant on care is forecast to climb from 800,000 today to 1.2million within just over a decade. Add to that number the fact that life expectancy, and therefore the number of years the senior citizen requires assistance, is expected to increase by about 4 years on average by 2040 (see our other articles on French senior citizens and demographics). All these trends underline the challenges to government policy but also to numerous new business opportunities. Services for the elderly will be dominated by the private sector in the years to come as the French government will focus its financial resources for the elderly on hospital care and care for the highly dependent.
In May 2006, the French Prime Minister outlined the key measures for his programme for the elderly, “Solidarité grand âge”. In brief, the programme envisages:
- The current rate of 5,000 new places per annum within retirement homes is extended to 2012. - The number of care-providers within retirement homes will be doubled, at least for those elderly persons requiring significant care. - Hospitals must provide greater services for the elderly - Home assisted living will be encouraged and made more wide-spread.
The cost of the programme is estimated at €3Bn between 2007 and 2012 of which €2.5Bn will go to old-age homes and home-assisted living, of which 513m will be spent in 2007, and more than €400m will be allocated to hospitals.
There are 680,000 places in retirement homes in France today, including both the public and private sector. The 25,000 new places that are being planned by 2012 are already judged to be insufficient by most organisations. More worrying is the ambition to increase the number of care-providers within old-age homes. France is far behind the European average with a ratio of just 0.4 to 0.5 professional care provider to each resident, giving a total workforce of 250,000 in 2005. This compares to 1.2 for Scandinavian countries.
The target for home-assisted living is equally daunting. Today in France there are just 80,000 registered care providers for home-assisted living. The government’s programme envisages an increase of 32,000 new care providers within the next 5 years. While the government has plans to enlarge the training facilities and to even form a newly recognised diploma for home care, it will rely almost exclusively on the private sector to do the work.
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