Labour’s promises on health are setting the party up to fail | The BMJ

Keir Starmer is making big, conflicting, and unrealistic promises on health, without a clear plan for delivering them, which is setting Labour up to fail.

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I so agree, for he is doing what all governments are doing and have done for years and that is completely ignore an essential part of health and that is social care.

While not administered by health (NHS), but should have been, for it is administered through Local Authorities, for social care and the NHS are so part of each other and one can’t exist without the other. If one goes the other will certainly follow.

So, funding for social care, staffing issues and so much more is just as important, if not more so, than for the NHS, but no government is, has been and in the future apparently wishing to admit to.

Social care workers are so poorly paid that people are not wishing to enter the care profession or if they do, there are too much insufficiency of them to make any differences. Their pay rates need to be starting around £14/15 per hour and not the current rates of around £11 per hour.

This leads to great insufficiencies in social care and in many instances no social care completely. Thus leading to cause much health inequalities creating many areas of health deteriorations, which creates more need for social care and much more needs for the NHS to deal with.

This is not just in social care relating to care homes for the elderly, but also much increasing needs for both children and all adults in home care, supported living, respite, hospices and much more.

Families have been doing all they can and much more amounting to a saving in 2021 of £193 billion within the UK, an increase in the £132 billion in 2015, so if it was not for families, social care would be in a much worse state than it is. While this is very bad and getting worse day by day, all due to governments taking no notice. Is this by ignorance or by deliberate design, I feel the latter as UK governments don’t care.

By ignoring the state of social care not only are the persons in need of social care deteriorating in health, but their families also, thereby, eventually causing more demands on social care and then so much more on the NHS. This is nowhere near sustainable, so extremely urgent actions are required by government, but our currently government even only offering a miniscule amount, then halving it and then eventually delaying until 2025, with no guarantee on resolving then.

So the outlook for social care is so very bleak and if Starmer, should he become Prime Minister in 2024, his so unrealistic NHS outcomes will never be delivered, unless he first delivers on social care, which on today’s understanding could need anywhere between £8-12 billion initially with much more on a regular yearly basis for social care only and then will he be able to also concentrate on the NHS.

Very dire indeed and so, so urgent.

Source: Labour’s promises on health are setting the party up to fail | The BMJ

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Vulnerable kids put in foster care up to 500 miles from home due to carer shortage – Mirror Online

This is another shocking example of the state of Social Care in the UK and 2010 Austerity Cuts are much to blame. Social care needs so much immediate funding, but it never does, even when promised it is then halved and eventually then delayed, currently to 2025. But with no guarrantee it will be then.

Social care early interventions could well reduce the need for any foster care, but firstly social care needs to be sufficiently funded, for I see it never has been and I so doubt it will ever be, no matter what the colour of government comes next.

 

Source: Vulnerable kids put in foster care up to 500 miles from home due to carer shortage – Mirror Online

Why council was found to have breached Care Act needs duty after panel cut indicative budget – Community Care

Thankful for the court’s decision, but is Croydon alone in these areas, I so doubt it.

Also, was it that Croydon didn’t understand the requirements of the Care Act 2014, knew them but decided to not abide by them, or was so short of finance that they took a chance they could get aways with it.

Perhaps a mixture of all and may be some more.

Many, if not all Local Authorities, (LAs) are so short of finance, due to Tory austerity cuts in 2010, that they are having to cut many essential services and LAs are shouldering the blame for these cuts, when the real problem is the Tory governments since 2010. While initially social care was not affected to as much degree as some other service with some LAs, due to the ongoing and more substantial cuts imposed over the years, social care had to shoulder their degree of cuts. This then making social care being provided to many being far short of what is required and to some no social care at all.

As we can see, this has and is severely causing many problems within social care and much suffering and lack of care for persons in need of care and creating much stress and concerns with their families as well.

Families do as much as they can and then even more, thus causing their own health’s to suffer.

In the last few years this has been causing much more demand on the NHS and further increase the crisis in the NHS, so not only major crisis in social care, but also in the NHS.

This government and all future governments have to ensure that funding for social care and the NHS is at least sufficient and then sustainable. To not do so will lead to the eventual complete disintegration of social care and so to much of the NHS.

Perhaps this is what all Tories are wishing for and then they can bring in full privatisation and the complete demise of the NHS and social care.

Will Labour be any better, well I so doubt so.

Source: Why council was found to have breached Care Act needs duty after panel cut indicative budget – Community Care

NHS social workers’ pay deal to go through after majority backing from unions – Community Care

Yes, it has but is it enough, well no it is not, not for nurses and other NHS workers who have accepted and will not be for those still to accept and again for teachers and any others.

But, there are workers still much worse off and this does affect the NHS, yes the care workers, those who provide care in care homes, home care, supported living, respite, hospices and others for both children and all adults. Many of these workers are on or just above the National Living Wage , which effectively is not a living wage because it is taxable. A living wage should be so not have tax deducted as the tax threshold should start at the National Living Wage. Even then, it would be so insufficient for the work care workers do.

Like workers in the NHS, teaching and other professions, there are very real shortages of care workers, so many people are reluctant to enter the profession as they can earn much more in other occupations with far less responsibilities.

This is and has led to a serious decline in the availability of social care which is bringing and has for some many years much more usage of NHS services adding to the so severe crisis already in the NHS. Not one real mention has been made about funding social care by this government or any of the opposition parties. Except this government has stated to delay funding, which was so short of what is required until 2025, social care and the NHS may not have that long, but no politician cares.

The government found the money for King Charles III Coronation, even though there is a cost of living crisis, but not what really matters to the most vulnerable people in our Society. Charles has £millions, more likely £billions, but the government, or really we paid. Yes, it was a splendid occasion and may be some of what the country wished for, but there were much more urgent needs.

Neither Rishi or Starmer mention social care and in fact neither do any of the other party leaders, so the writing is there for all to see, the further demise of social care and with it the NHS.

None of us want a privatised health care system, but it is becoming so much closer, when will it become like the American system, for then we may all as well give up and die, which many are doing today, many yesterday and much more tomorrow.

Nobody is bothered about safeguarding and Human Rights, well not in government or in all areas of politics.

 

Source: NHS social workers’ pay deal to go through after majority backing from unions – Community Care

Raise pay, cut charges and provide rights to support: report for ADASS sets roadmap for ‘saving social care’ – Community Care

Care worker pay should be raised, charges for services cut and people provided with clear rights to support, said a report today for ADASS

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Not often I agree with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, (ADASS), in fact, virtually never, but in this I do agree for if something is not done urgently, then social care will continue to diminish to where it is really non-existent and that is not that far away. Perhaps, even 2025 could be too late for action really needs to be now and really many years ago.

If social care is left to expire, then this will seriously affect the NHS, way much more than it is currently, which is now very much. Both social care and the NHS have to be saved, for the loss of one will seriously affect the other, as we can see already. We all want to save the NHS, well this also includes saving social care for if social care reduces any further the NHS will go into even more serious decline, perhaps to never recover.

This government and all future governments have to take urgent decisions and that is to safeguard social care, I so do hope that 2025 will not be too late, but do fear it could be.

We need a listening government, like never before, but will we get one, well I so hope so, but really can’t see one coming, that is so depressing. How much more depressing can the UK take?

 

Source: Raise pay, cut charges and provide rights to support: report for ADASS sets roadmap for ‘saving social care’ – Community Care

Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2022 | The King’s Fund

I agree completely with the report and its conclusions, but the blame for failure should not be focused on the NHS and Social Care, especially those working in those areas for those working are doing the best with very limited and extremely stretched resources, with many, if not all workers beyond what should be expected of them.

The total blame should be firmly based on the government for its failure to support and recognise what is required.

This is expressly so for social care, which is the way forgotten emergency service in the eyes of government this and all previous governments.

If social care is left to fail then this will mean the NHS also continues to fail, for they are both dependent on each other. While both are in dire need to funding, the main priority has to be social care which should be an immediate injection of £12 billion and then similar for years to come.

Not saying the NHS should be devoid of increase funding, as they should not but the main priority has to be social care so that the health inequalities occurring can be reduced which in time will reduce some instances of persons needing the NHS. But that is long-term at least 5 years or maybe longer.

So both have to have increased funding of sufficient need, this could be done by slightly increasing taxation, but not for the those on low incomes, but more for those on higher incomes and more sustained taxation of multi-national companies. One major need to increase the lower tax threshold to much nearer the National Living Wage for by its name should never be taxable.

Levelling up is needed in all areas, especially the wealth of the nation.

 

Source: Public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2022 | The King’s Fund

Councils able to recruit overseas social workers through £15m fund – Community Care

£15 million is a start, but nowhere near enough for pay levels have to be sorted in all aspects of social care and even more so for care workers. Pay rates for care workers have been far too low for years and without a considerable increase bringing in workers from outside the UK will be another, insufficient, ‘sticking plaster’. For the wound to social care needs to be healed forever, but I can’t see any government doing so, not the current and none coming forward.

 

Where a wound is left to fester, then amputations are the next stage and eventually death and that is what is occurring with social care, due to the complete lack of care, understanding and recognition from this government and all preceding governments.

 

People can’t live on fresh air and the air, currently, has not been fresh for some time.

 

Source: Councils able to recruit overseas social workers through £15m fund – Community Care

We can’t fix the NHS crisis until we fix our social care crisis | New Economics Foundation

I have been saying all of this for many years so it is good to see it is being recognised so much more prominently than any of my own postings but it so much needs much more prominence, especially in all areas of Government and urgently to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt MP

But it could be that they are already aware but don’t really care because they feel it is not that much important when it really is but is their agenda to eventually get rid of not only social care but even the NHS. So even if you don’t currently use social care its existence is fully required if only to safeguard the NHS and who knows when you will need social care for in many instances its need comes without fore-warning. So, if it is not there or in insufficient capacity then what will happen to you, well not much and you will be left to suffer just as many are doing so currently. Not only in the NHS, but so much more so in social care.

Both the NHS and social care are extremely short of staff in all areas, perhaps in social care even more so. But it is not just staffing for the extreme shortages of finance are also resulting in other areas of resources including employment terms and conditions and many others.

Both NHS and social care are in very critical states, with social care more so and for much longer in period, for social care as never been sufficiently funded and even more so since 2010 due to the austerity cuts to Local Authorities (LAs) imposed by many Tory Governments since then.

These austerity cuts were imposed on the understanding that the cuts could be mitigated by LAs making savings, but in reality there were hardly any savings to be made, so the cuts led to cuts in services and are still doing so. The blame for all this never rested with the LAs, who have borne the brunt of the criticism, when the total blame should have been borne by each and every Tory Government.

Both social care and the NHS need urgently required sustainable funding, social care most urgently, but also Government recognition of their great importance within the UK, social care has it as never been recognised but was always so.

It will be said that the UK can’t afford to do so, but, in reality it can’t afford to not do so.

Yes, there are many on strike and proposing to do so, and yes, many do deserve more pay and better employment terms and conditions, but so do Social Care workers, perhaps much more urgently than some of those who are or about to strike.

Take pension provision where UK provision is well down on provisions in many other countries for while current salaries are important, pension provision is of equal importance, if not more so, irrespective of the age of the worker.

Social care and the NHS are so much reliant on each other for neither can exist without the other, so both need the required current and sustainable funding, now as time is not really there. The funding for both should have been sorted years ago, especially social care, but every Government in my 70 year lifetime and maybe well before as ignored both and especially social care and social care is still being ignored to a very large content for it not just needs £millions, but £billions not in years to come, but now.

To not do so, will eventually see both social care and the NHS disappear and then we will be in a much worse state than America whose Healthcare is most likely the worst in the Western World and their social care is not even mentioned.

Source: We can’t fix the NHS crisis until we fix our social care crisis | New Economics Foundation

Explainer: What pay rises have social workers received in 2022-23? – Community Care

I will bow to the judgement of Social Workers for they know their situation so much better than myself.

As many in social care or even social care in total does not have a good press and as such is not viewed as highly as it should be by many of the UK population, but follows the press and Government views and their total inaction in many instances.

When anything goes wrong, social workers are to the scapegoats and then the Local Authorities, (LAs) while the Government, current and all previous have gotten off ‘scot- free’ to a verylarge  extent.

But, in many instances it is down to the extensive reductions of Government funding for LAs through the austerity cuts from 2010 which has led to all LAs being extemely short of finance for all services in their control and social care is no exception.

This has not only led to an extensive shortage of care workers, but also social workers, which then leads to those remaining to have forever increasing workloads on top of already excessive workloads causing much extreme stress and many other health issues, thereby causing even less working for much of the time, so more increasing workloads.

All this leads to some errors to be made and these errors could well be life threatening as we have seen over the years. But is the state of the health of social workers taken into account, not as I see, but, of course the main consideration has to be the person requiring a social worker and their family. But blame needs to be placed not only to social workers and LAs, but even more so the Government. who should be mainly accountable, but never are, perhaps the Government and the Government ministers are too busy looking after themselves.

Social care and all who work in social care so deserve so much more and not the pittances that this Government is offering. To most of the UK population a £million there and another £million somewhere is a large amount and it is. But, nowhere near large enough for £billions are required just for social care, let alone the NHS.

Social care is and always will be, while it is around, an extremely needed emergency service, but is not recognised to be by the Government and to many in the UK.

I say while it is still around for the state of social care is extremely serious and may not be around in any reasonable form, if at all for much longer.

Social care needs the NHS as does the NHS need social care and when social care disappears the end will be nigh for the NHS, but many can’t see this.

This is not ‘doomsday’ thoughts, but could well be reality, if this Government and all future Governments don’t fund social care completely.

Families and their relatives are already suffering and have been for years, but still families are asked to do more. What more can they do for they are already saving care costs in the UK of £193 billion a year, up from £132 billion in 2015.

The family carers are, as always, ignoring their own health and this leads to more social care and eventually more NHS care in the long-term.

I am a former Family carer whose wife died 26 September 2020 and eventually my daughter who was receiving care on 4 October 2022, my own health has and is deteriorating and therefore I also need more care, but trying to not call on social care, as leaving it for others who need and deserve it more.

My wife’s health deteriorated considerably over many years, while trying not to call on social care and also my own health. My daughter lived with me and was in receipt of 24/7  home care and she wanted for nothing as the carers who came were all  excellent and could not have done more for it was her long standing conditions that were the cause of her demise, certainly not poor care, for her carers did all they could and so did the NHS when required. But her carers still blame themselves even though no more could have been done, this shows how so much they cared and most are still in contact with me to a large extent, even though they have their own lives to live and their families.

They earned every penny they received and should have so much received more, but Government funding dictated that they couldn’t.

Sorry for taking this away from Social workers who also deserve more, but care workers should be on at least £15 per hour and not the derisory National Living Wage of around £10 to be increased to £11 in April 2023. As the National Living Wage is wrongly named for it is so much not a living wage, even before deductions, a start would be making the taxable income level to be the National Living Wage, but even then it would fall short.

So Government all social care needs so much urgent funding not next year, but now. Safeguarding is so important but this Government appears not to care is it ignorance or design? But then no other UK Governments have been any better, will future ones be, well, I so doubt it.

 

Source: Explainer: What pay rises have social workers received in 2022-23? – Community Care

40% of people delayed in hospital awaiting social care package – Community Care

A plan, published by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England and a letter from ADASS, LGA, and SOLACE describing their priorities for future action to tackle pressures on hospitals, and surprisingly I tend to agree with both.

Unfortunately, all of this was there to be seen for many years previously, but during those years we have had un-listening Governments who, even if they had listened would not have been prepared to take the appropriate actions. So the crisis in social care and also that of the NHS were left to fester.

Many of the problems of the NHS are down to the crisis in social care, but that is not down to social care and also to the Local Authorities (LAs) who are responsible for funding social care to a large extent but the funding of LAs by the Governments, especially since 2010 with the dreaded austerity cuts imposed on LAs by the tory Governments since then have caused very serious problems. But, in reality, the funding for social care has never been fully sufficient, but the cuts from 2010 certainly added to the problems, very greatly, and not just social care, but all other services which LAs are responsible to fund. All of this is down to Governments who apparently have never been blamed.

So, yes both social care and the NHS are in dire need of substantial need of additional funding, but the funding is far too little and to a very large extent way far too late. If most of the way too little additional funding goes to the |NHS and not social care this again will be so wrong.

Both the NHS and social care are extremely short of staff, perhaps social care even more so. While there is currently, strike actions by some NHS workers for a very justifiable salary increase, the increase in pay rates for care workers could be way more justified., for care workers have never been paid sufficiently. Most are only on the National Living Wage of around £10 per hour increasing to around £11 per hour in April 2023 but in reality, the rate should be at least £15 per hour.

These increases are required now in full and not over 2 years, and these pay rates have to be sustainably increased for all the years to come. But for care workers, it is not just pay rates, but also employment terms and conditions, which include travel expenses holiday pay, and to some extent recognition of holiday entitlement sick pay, and much more.

These problems are totally at the door of the Government and need to be actioned without further delay.

It could be said that all of this can’t be afforded, and I would say it can’t be afforded not to.

 

Source: 40% of people delayed in hospital awaiting social care package – Community Care