Mencap chief ‘disappointed’ after care home rated inadequate – YorkshireLive

This is just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ for all of social care is in crisis due to very severe lack of funding, not the blame of Mencap and other providers and not the Local Authorities (LAs) for this is totally the blame of the government who have deliberately reduced LA funding since 2010 with all the austerity cuts they have imposed on LAs. This causes the LAs to have insufficient funds to pay providers to provide services, not just in care homes, but all of social care be it for children and adults including home care, supported living and others.

The rates of pay of care workers are on or just above the National Living Wage from 1 April it will be £10.42 per hour. But these workers could earn much more in other work opportunities without any of the responsibilities they need to undertake in care. This has and is further causing massive insufficiencies of care staff, which is being supplemented in some degree by agency workers.

Pay care workers what they deserve to be paid around, at least £14 per hour, but to do this the government needs to immediately stop austerity cuts and fully reimburse LAs for all the funding took away from these cuts. Even that will not be sufficient but it will be a start, for without it social care will deteriorate even further to a degree where effectively there is no real social care. Then the crisis in the NHS will become very much worse, for it is already suffering due to the current insufficiencies of social care, but it will get worse very soon if government is not willing to do the required actions. Even waiting a year could be well too late.

The NHS will continue to fail, now is this what this government really wishes for, well it could well be.

 

Source: Mencap chief ‘disappointed’ after care home rated inadequate – YorkshireLive

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Thousands with learning disabilities trapped in hospital, some for years | Learning disability | The Guardian

This is other situations which are adding to the crisis in social care and health, both are very under resourced areas and adding greatly to the concerns of persons in need of care, their families and the staff in those facilities.

In many instances the lack of appropriate facilities nearer to where the person in need of care lived also adds to these concerns for the further away they are from any family will only add to the distresses of the persons and their families.

The families could well be a great source of information on how to look after their relative, especially on how they have tended to live their lives and more about their individual characteristics. Hospitals, any hospital tends to treat conditions on a general basis and don’t usually alter this to individual tastes and some preferences. Everyone is an individual, but in many instances the routines of hospitals are unable to take these into account, especially when many resources are in short supply.

In many instances the persons in these assessment units will undergo changing moods and these could well become more intense the longer they are away from their families, thus leading to more difficulties in the administering of their care, thereby creating even more distress to them. This could well, then lead to measures being taken by the hospitals to contain the person, which may not be the best ways in dealing with the situations, but have been believed to be the best in general, but not for each individual person. So a person could become more distressed than they were when originally admitted and this, if the treatments being given are not adjusted lead to more severe deteriorations.

This is expressly so, if a person is deemed to be ready for discharge but there are no appropriately accommodations available, near their families, who could be then available to help in any care being required.

This is due to the very severe crisis in social care throughout social care which has been caused by many years of under investment in social care by UK governments, especially since the 2010 Tory austerity cuts on Local Authorities.

The social care crisis is so severe than it could well see the end of social care in the UK, which would have very serious consequences for health in the UK, and create even more crisis in the NHS.

Unfortunately this current government and all previous governments have ignored social care leading to this very severe crisis and there does not appear to be any real assistance coming in the future. Therefore the crisis in both social care and the NHS will continue to escalate, thus causing even more greater longer stays in hospitals assessment units.

Not good for anyone, so we urgently need a very listening government. Human rights are not being respected and many more safeguarding alerts will occur. So very urgent funding and other actions are required. The funding will need to be long-term to ensure continuity and sustainability for social care, which has never been present before.

A great culture change is required by Government.

 

 

Source: Thousands with learning disabilities trapped in hospital, some for years | Learning disability | The Guardian

Quarter of those who quit register last year had been on it for less than a year, reveals Social Work England – Community Care

Being a social worker is and will never be easy as VB stated and there does not appear to be anything coming to make any of the work any easier only very much worse.

In all areas of social care the need is so much more than any of the resources available and unfortunately I can’t see this changing anytime now. Even, if Local Authorities are aware of the problems, they themselves, in all areas, are suffering from lack of resources and this current government is far from listening and I fear the next will be very much similar for no government is prepared to fund social care to the degree that is required, even to continue as it is. In real terms the funding is decreasing requiring the little to be spread ever so thinly so the demise of social care will continue.

In this social care can’t survive and in declining further means the NHS decline will also continue.

We all need a listening government in so many areas, but social care is a very extreme situation.

I appreciate what social workers are doing with so dwindling resources, they are doing what they can and all know it is way insufficient causing ever increasing workloads with ever increasing in complexities of need.

I feel social care needs at least £12 billion now and similar for years to come, this will not only sustain social workers but be a so needed increase to the resources for all care workers.

Anything less will continue the decline., leading to so many more safeguarding alerts, which will heap more blame on social workers, when really the blame should be resting with the government, not this one current, but all previous who also failed to listen. The government are ignoring the human rights of all in need of care.

 

Source: Quarter of those who quit register last year had been on it for less than a year, reveals Social Work England – Community Care

Care homes should give hiring foreign workers a go, says minister

I do wish Ministers to have a greater understanding of what they are talking about and this to applies to Minister of State for Social Care Helen Whately MP when she states hiring foreign workers for there are many rules to abide by. Also it is not just care homes which are desperately short of staff but all areas of social care for adults and children, including home care, supported living, respite, hospises and others.

While the lack of staff is a very real problem, adding to this is the major problem of pay and the appropriate funding of social care. Currently the rate of pay is usually around the National Liviving Wage £9.50 per hour increasing to £10.42 in April 2023 for those 23 and over and in some instances the Real Living Wage of £10.90 for those 18 and over. So in April 2023, especially for those over 23 not much difference.

Especially when they could be earning much more in many other areas with much less responsibilitities such as supermarkets over £11. But for the responsibilities care workers undertake they should be earning at least £13/14. Most care workers are employed by care providers in the private sector who recieve their funding from Local Authorities, (LAs), However, these LAs have been subjected to severe austerity cuts to their funding since 2010 from many Tory governments and their current funding is not able to sustain the required increases to enable care workers to be paid more. Social care needs an urgent increase in funding currently stated to be in the region of £7 billion.

While The Health Foundation has suggested that an additional £14.4 billion a year would be required by 2030/31 to meet future demand, improve access to care, and pay more for care.

So, Helen so much more is required and while bringing in Non-UK workers would be a help it is so far from the real answers to the problems to ensure a sustained social care, which if not done will have even more problems for a continuation of the NHS.

Source: Care homes should give hiring foreign workers a go, says minister

Hunt’s Budget boosts tax relief for foster and shared lives carers and support for care leavers – Community Care

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced increased tax relief for foster and shared lives carers, and improved support for care leavers in his Spring Budget today.

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Yes, ‘Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced increased tax relief for foster and shared lives carers, improved support for care leavers and enhanced help for disabled people to enter the workplace’.

A miracle you may say for a Tory Government, but do miracles really happen, well, perhaps not.

Yes, many disabled people may wish to work and have the skills to do so, but with their disability will they be able to attend work without some assistance. If they will need assistance where will this assistance come from? Some may say family, but families are already saving the UK £billions, in fact from, a Carers UK 2021 report at least £193 billions so how much more will this government wish families to give. But families have many other commitments and could well have their own difficulties with finance and more available time.

So the alternative could well be social care, but that too is in a severe crisis which has been for many years and each coming year the crisis grows. It is requiring a massive funding  response some say as much as £7 billion, but I believe so much more at least £12 billion.

In the care profession there are major shortages of staff, so already many in need of care are not receiving any or just a little to, perhaps survive, but some maybe not. While quality care is required the lack of carers is resulting in many instances of poor care being given, not because carers are not willing to provide good quality care, but they have insufficient time to do so. Their pay for the responsibilities they undertake are also well below what they should be and this is so similar to those in childcare. Another example of a budget proposal which has not been thought through. In both childcare and social care the carers could earn so much more in areas of much less responsibility and many are leaving to do so.

But, is this government providing the funds to local authorities, (LAs) to fund this care, well the simple answer is either none or only a fraction of what is really required.

The Budget made no mention of real social care funding and in the Oppositions response to the Budget they too made no reference.

So it is not just this current government that is totally ignoring social care, but also possible future governments.

The lack of social care is causing many inequalities and many of these are also affecting the NHS, so lack of social care is also part of the NHS crisis.

But this government is not listening, either through their ignorance or by their willingness not to, which it is, is up for discussion, but I have my own views on which it is, as I believe the government is the equivalent of the ‘3 wise monkeys’.

This government just doesn’t care, the Parties may not be occurring, but the attitudes are still there.

 

Source: Hunt’s Budget boosts tax relief for foster and shared lives carers and support for care leavers – Community Care

Rationing, not strengths-based practice, likely to explain fall in numbers receiving care, finds study – Community Care

While the funding appears to be substantial, it is far from it and the lack of social care continues to escalate and is and will lead to many more deaths.

The current figures will include those, pertaining or being assumed to be from COVID, but the figures will continue to increase while the element from COVID reduces.

The real problems are lack of resources of which staff is a major reason and the reason for this is down mainly to funding and then also the poor working terms and conditions.

For many are reluctant to enter the care profession and many others are leaving to get better paid work in other sectors with far less responsibilities and this can only get worse.

Substantial funding is required from Local Authorities, but for them to achieve this they in turn also need much more funding themselves, which can’t be obtained from any increases to Council Tax to anywhere near the required level. The government needs to, urgently, find the funds to provide this much needed funding and it has to be now. To wait another year will be way to late and many more deaths with occur.

Safeguarding is and always will be a major concern and the incidents of safeguarding will continue to escalate.

These are serious matters relating to Human Rights, which are not being respected and adhered to.

But is this government concerned, I regretfully believe that they aren’t and are not understanding the real extent of the problem, if they have any understanding of the problem at all.

Hopefully this is due to their ignorance on the subject, but is that really correct or is it that they really don’t care.

 

Source: Rationing, not strengths-based practice, likely to explain fall in numbers receiving care, finds study – Community Care

Social care 360 | The King’s Fund

A good report from The King’s Fund, as we have seen to expect, but are the Government listening, well if they are they are not understanding the problem and so not acting accordingly. Well is this not understanding by design or still some form of iggnorance by the Government.

Yes, the Government have many priorities to consider, but surely the persons with more to lose should be seen as a highest priority. So what do they lose, their dignity, their ability to lead a resonsible life, and so much more, but eventually the loss of their life, so much sooner than would or should be expected.

Surely prevention should be extremely high on any agenda, but over many years, preventation as not be on a Government agenda because has as been said, in so many words, social care should be down to families. Here is what Care minister David Mowat said in 2017, but in 2015 Families were already saving £132 billion and in 2021 this had increased to £193 billion.

So, how much more does the Government want families to do, yes families do care for their children, but with children with disabilities, this is generally for the full life of their children let alone also the parents, most likely looking after their own parents, whole themselves getting older and could well need care themselves.

This is not only increasing the need for social care, but also increasing the need for more substancial health care, so costing the NHS much more.

This is all occurring when the funding for both social care and health is not increasing in line with costs and in many instances is reducing in real terms. There are ever increasing staff shortages in both social and health care, so, less resources to cope with increasing demands.

This can’t go on and eventually and maybe, now services are way short of what is really required, and will lead to even less services in the not too distant future or even no services to speak of.

In social care this is in all areas, children and adults and not just for the elderly, then in health, again in all areas, primary care, community care, hospitals and all other areas. So it is not just in GP surgeries, District and community nurses, and all aspects of hospital care both outpatient and inpatients, but in every aspect, but this government still asks for savings to be made and will not delivery on the funding required. It is not just nurses, junior doctors, ambulance workers, care staff, both care homes and home care, but in all areas and workers are leaving to earn much more in other areas and even in other countries.

As is Western Australia in the last month, so when they have gone, the situations will be so much worse. This Government is saying we can’t afford to give more, well is the real situation that they can’t afford not too.

This Government has to start doing more, perhaps even pay themselves less for they have to start somewhere.

 

Source: Social care 360 | 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

Councils to face targets in return for adult social care funding – Community Care

Since 2010 the Tory Governments have been responsible for restricting Local Authorities (LAs) funding due to their imposed austerity cuts and now this Tory government is placing more restrictions to receive and keep the very minimal funding being offered, for the £400m in additional cash for 2023-24, is so insufficient to gain any improvements.

So, yes, the DHSC is setting all LAs up to fail, and in doing so many LAs will fail so much that they will be bankrupted, which many are so close to being now.

This government is so irresponsible, but are they for is this their main plan and wish to centralise everything?

 

Source: Councils to face targets in return for adult social care funding – Community Care

Cost of care analyses show councils lack funding to pay providers fair price, warn directors – Community Care

We all are aware, some more than others that Social care has been underfunded for many years, perhaps for all preceding years, but the austerity cuts imposed on Local Authorities (LAs) by Tory governments from 2010 and to the current day have made the underfunding much more.

But all services funded by LAs have suffered since 2010 for effectively there aren’t any real savings to be made, so services are cut, many extremely. But LAs have been left to shoulder all the blame while most of the blame should be directed to governments, this current one and all preceding governments as social care has been left to flounder by all of them. This has led for many years for the crisis in social care to deepen over these years and, while this crisis in social care has been affecting the NHS for many years, now it is so much evident, it was before, but now so more so.

The government offering a little here and a little there will have no effect whatsoever, so the government needs to do so much more.

While the costs of care exercises the LAs were required to undertake by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) by 1 February are welcomed these exercises should have been taken many years earlier. However, were or are LAs in a place to conduct this exercise, you will say that they should have been, but were they?

I say this, has it has been my experience and many other family carers and providers in the social care sector that the Assessments of Needs undertaken by many LAs have not been done as fully as they should have been for some well-meaning social workers have been informing some families and persons with unmet needs that their LA will not be able to finance all of which is required and therefore no point in including it in the assessments. This then leads to LAs not being in full understanding of what all unmet needs there are, or try to persuade by, in some instances, causing guilt on families that they should be doing more. But in reality families are doing so much already and in many instances well more than they should to maintain their own health and wellbeing, which in many, if not all are the last they consider. For this caused much of my own late wife’s and my own health deteriorations and to many other families I am aware of.

As at 2020 a saving of £193 billion (The value of unpaid care was estimated at £530 million per day and £193 billion per year during the pandemic (Carers UK, Unseen and Undervalued, 2020).

That is a very substantial amount, but family carer costs savings are not included in the Assessment of Needs when it should be significantly, as should every unmet need, even if it is being met by the family.

Unfortunately, I can’t see any improvements being made for this government and all preceding have not considered social care has an emergency service and not social care workers as being the skilled workers and extremely needed as they are. But then it comes to family carers, who are unpaid, except for the totally insufficient Carers Allowance, which is not a benefit for caring but a small amount to try to compensate for any loss of earnings incurred while caring and then it is classed as a taxable benefit!!

All care workers, social workers and all NHS workers so deserve to be paid more, but that is highly unlikely in the present climate.

The state of social care is not sustainable and has it declines so does the NHS for without sufficient sustainable funding immediately for social care and then the NHS neither will survive, then our care will be much worse than Americas, perhaps that is the governments real intention.

Source: Cost of care analyses show councils lack funding to pay providers fair price, warn directors – Community Care