Shrien Dewani: The Real Crisis Behind Brenda’s Story in Social Care
- Shrien Dewani
- Nov 19
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
By: Shrien Dewani
For years, the public conversation around Health & Social Care has been shaped more by headlines than by truth. We react with emotion, but rarely with understanding. Every so often, a story emerges that forces us to confront the gap between what people think care costs and what it actually takes to deliver safe, dignified, high-quality support. Brenda’s story is one of those moments.
It invites us, providers, families, leaders, and policymakers to look beyond sympathy and acknowledge the uncomfortable realities that define the daily experience in our care homes. As someone who has spent decades in this sector, I believe we must speak about these issues with clarity, context, and honesty.
The Story of Brenda Deserves More Than Sympathy, It Deserves Honesty About the Real Crisis in Social Care
Reading the headlines about Brenda, a 98-year-old woman with dementia who was moved from her care home after five years naturally evokes sympathy. It is a heartbreaking situation for anyone, let alone someone approaching the end of life.
But as a care provider, when I look at this story through a more informed lens, I am left with a very different emotion:
Anger at how irresponsibly this has been reported, and how little honesty there is about the true cost of care in this country.
Here are some uncomfortable truths the headlines fail to mention:
1. Brenda paid around £4,000 a month, roughly £1,000 a week.
These fees are not unreasonable.
The public is often led to believe that £1,000 per week is an extortionate figure. It isn’t.
Not for a 24-hour supported environment, dementia-trained staff, meals, laundry, medication support, clinical oversight, housekeeping, heating, maintenance, regulation, insurance, and every other element that keeps a person safe.
A skilled workforce providing personal care, emotional support, and constant supervision cannot and should not be cheap.
This is why leaders in the sector, including myself, keep calling for transparency around what care truly costs.
2. The local authority placed her in a home costing £2,400 per month, around £600 per week.
This is not a “reasonable alternative”.
You cannot book a hotel in that area for £80 per night.
And a hotel doesn’t include food, cleaning, supervision, care, medication management, or trained staff who understand dementia.
So when a local authority says £600 per week is the “affordable” rate for complex dementia care, we are not talking about value we are talking about systemic underfunding.
It is not that Brenda’s original care home was expensive.
It is that the funding system is unrealistic.
3. The media must be responsible in how these stories are framed.
If we genuinely care about older people, then we must tell the truth:
High-quality dementia care costs more than the rates local authorities pay.
When underfunding collides with complexity, it is people like Brenda who pay the price.
And every time the public is misinformed, it becomes harder to have an honest national conversation about what good care actually requires.
This is not a story of a “greedy care home”.
It is a story of a care system whose funding model no longer reflects the needs of the people it serves.
We owe it to Brenda and to every family to be honest about what is happening.
Until we confront the reality of chronic underfunding in social care, these stories will keep happening. And each one chips away at the trust, stability, and dignity that older people deserve.
As I, have said many times:
If we want dignity, we must fund dignity.
Want more? Here's another story: Shrien Dewani: The Workforce We Must Not Take for Granted
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