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

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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

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

I’ve worked out that being disabled costs me an extra £13,000 each year | Metro News

The real cost of being a disabled person will not be known unless you are the disabled person, because we are all different, even persons with similar disabilities. For there are many forms of disabilities and people who have them will have them with differing degrees of severities and will more than likely have more than one disability.

Yes, there are some disability benefits, but there are many criteria which needs to be matched and the forms are very lengthy and not all that easy to compile. So, in many instances the amounts of disability benefits which could be received will in most respects never be sufficient to cover all costs related to disabilities.

This is even more so in today’s circumstances due to the very high living costs and the severe shortages in both social care and health care available.

Everyone should be entitled to equality, but being disabled means more needs to be done to get anywhere near to be equal to persons without disabilities.

Other than the severe shortages of social and health care, just consider the different forms of transport.

After many years of campaigning some forms of transport are now more accessible than previously.

Buses, for example now have to have wheelchair access and wheelchair spaces on every bus. However, in many instances these spaces are already taken, maybe with baby pushchairs and even though there is a message there to say that wheelchairs have priority, but trying to gain access is in many instances difficult to do.

Then there is only one or two spaces so what happens if room for a third wheelchair is required, yes, they could wait for the next bus, but the 3 persons could be together and who is to say the next bus will have room or when it will come.

Other forms of transport have their own inequalities.

But one of the worst forms of travel is by plane, as people in wheelchairs or even some with other mobility problems will be unable to board and disembark without special assistance and there could be lengthy waits for it to arrive, if it ever does and will the assistance be as sufficient as it should be. Then what about toilet access on the plane as the wheelchair will not be allowed to be with the person, so will all assistance be available throughout the flight. Surely, in this age of technology the ability to travel in your own wheelchair on a plane should be there and when boarding or disembarked they should be the first and not the last.

To a person who uses a wheelchair, the wheelchair is an integral part of them, not just an accessory to be taken away for easy of loading a plane.

So even though costs is a major factor there are many more factors that have to be taken into account, causing much more unnecessary stresses to the person with disabilities, equality has so much more of a way to go and it is a very long way, which should not be so in many various areas.

These are Human Rights which are not being adhered to and any areas where full equality is not available actions should be taken against those who are not providing this full equality whoever or whatever they are.

Source: I’ve worked out that being disabled costs me an extra £13,000 each year | Metro News

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

Risk of ‘poor or potentially illegal’ practice in care home discharge plan, warns ADASS – Community Care

This all so true and I welcome the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) now speaking out, but this should have been done much earlier for this crisis is nothing new, but is so much more than it has been.

The crisis with the funding of Social Care goes back years, even well before 2010 when the dreaded Tory austerity cuts were introduced. It was so clear then and well before that social care could not continue as it needs to with totally insufficient funding it was receiving and the Austerity cuts, followed by COVID and now the cost of living inflations are making it even more necessary for so much more funding. It is surprising that Social Care has continued to be there, which it has in a very seriously depleted form on the backs of the totally insufficiently paid care workers.

Due to the extremely low pay in the care profession, less and less people are prepared to enter the profession for a meagre remuneration, when much more can be earned in other areas with so much less responsibilities required.

Then with the Tory so inappropriate immigration policies this then drastically cut the numbers of persons wishing to come to the UK to enter the care profession on either a full-time or even part-time basis. Then there are the totally inappropriate Terms and Conditions available, again totally insufficient travel expenses, no proper sick pay arrangements and no recognition for working Bank Holidays and in some instances even holiday entitlement, but there are many other difficulties.

This has led to a serious deficiency in staffing and even more so now, so these small amounts of Government funding at this late stage will do so little to achieve. it is not £millions required, but many £billions, at least £12billion.

If this Government and all previous Government had been really concerned about social care then these current situations would not be here, but all these Governments viewed social care has being insignificant, if they even viewed social care at all.

We are all now and the NHS suffering greatly for all this current and all past Governments great insufficient concerns and there will be so much more suffering for those who are in the greatest need of care, for deaths will and are occurring due to all these lack of concerns by all Governments.

Every area of the NHS is suffering not just hospital beds, just as social care has been suffering for years without any real concerns.

For the NHS to have any real chance of survival then social care has to be fully, sufficiently funded and not just for now, but the required funding has to be sustained, otherwise these crises will just reoccur and in a greater extent to that currently.

Safeguarding is so much a concern and many more will be occurring.

Wake up Government for once in its life and break the habit of a lifetime and do all that is required for both social care and the NHS for both depends on it for any forms of survival.

Care workers are very much misaligned and deserve so much more respect from all quarters of the UK, especially this Government.

 

Source: Risk of ‘poor or potentially illegal’ practice in care home discharge plan, warns ADASS – Community Care

Care home discharge plan risks inappropriate placements and neglects causes of crisis – sector – Community Care

All of this is so true, for this Government and really all the preceeding Government don’t have a clue and are not only not prepared to listen, they give the impression that they don’t really wish to.

They have no understanding of the problems and to some extent don’t even recognise there are problems, for to slove problems, firstly it has to be recognised there are problems and then have the wish to solve them, which this Government appears to have little wish to do so on a sustainable basis.

Sticking plasters are only for the short-terms and even for the short-term the sticking plaster has to be of the right size. Yes, the money going in seems large, but nowhere near how much is needed for even short-term, let alone full sustainability and the sticking plaster has to be applied to the right areas.

What is being done is so much similar to the Nightingale Hospitals created during COVID, yes good to do, but so ineffective if staffing is not available.

Social care needs so much, sufficient staffing resources, trained to the correct extent and being paid for being the skilled experts they are and not the dire amount currently paid but also increased travel expenses, much better working conditions, working Bank Holidays recognised and paid accordingly to mention just a few.

So many more good care workers are required as the shortages far exceed those in the NHS and without them, no matter how much insufficent funding is given by the Government any successes will not be achieved.

The NHS needs social care and social care needs the NHS so they have to work together, be allowed to work together, but without a listening Government all are doomed to failure, which is then a major failure for the whole of the UK.

Whether the UK can afford the required funding, it has to for if it does not then the crisises will continue until it is far too late, which is very near, if not here already.

This is safeguarding which needs to be achieved.

Also social care is so much more than care homes, for its range includes both adults and children in many different areas. Families can only do so much and already do so, currently saving social care more than £130 billion a year and every year. Families get older and while doing the caring for their relatives are often ignoring their own health, until it becomes too late and they, then themselves also need social care and more from the NHS, if only a Government had listened and provided what was and currently is, so much required. By a Government not doing so, they are just increasing the resulting costs required, but then that is what they are good at and some will say the only thing they are good at, for it is so clear that safeguarding social care and then the NHS is not on their agenda. and appears will never be so.

 

Source: Care home discharge plan risks inappropriate placements and neglects causes of crisis – sector – Community Care

£200m for NHS to buy short-term care placements to speed up discharge – Community Care

So little and so too late for before problems can be sorted everyone needs to understand what all the problems are and this Government and many, if not all preceeding them, have not only failed to do, but completely ignored what has and is occurring in Social Care. This is not just care homes but the whole of social care for both adults and children.

For the staffing problems within all aspects of social care far exceeds those within the NHS, even though themselves are extremely immense.

Rates of pay for social care workers are so dire, but that is not all for there are major issues with travel expenses, unsocial hours pay, holiday pay and reconising working Bank Holidays, proper sick pay arrangements and many other aspects. So the funding for all needs to be greatly improved for the National Living Wage is no way near a proper Living Wage and it is taxable which it should not be.

Having austerity cuts to Local Authorities (LAs) since 2010 and still around causing LAs to have insufficient funding to fund social care, which although they rarely employ any care workers, except for some possible short term emergency care, to both private care providers and also families/ persons in need of care funding their own care workers(Personal Assistants) through Direct Payments from LAs or Personal Health Budgets through Health (Continuing Health Care, CHC). The funding is so dire and so are the resulting per hour pay rates that very few are wishing to enter the Care profession and with this Governments immigration Policies not many coming from outside of the UK.

Without sufficient urgent funding for social care in £billions not £millions then there is no way out for the NHS as both social care and the NHS needs each other.

It will be said there is no money, well in reality there has to be for the total survival of social care and the NHS depends on it.

Also sufficient funding needs to be found to fund all increased rates of pay for every worker in the NHS, not just Nurses and Junior Doctors, but for every worker for they are all part of the same team and one can’t exist without the others.

This Government and all future Governments need to be in the real world and allow funding for everyone to live a reasonable life, not just the top 5% or is it the top 1% of the UK population.

Have real ‘Leveling Up’ or should it be ‘Leveling Down’ for these top percentages. for there are so many safeguarding concerns and so many more to come.

 

Source: £200m for NHS to buy short-term care placements to speed up discharge – Community Care

Former Conservative deputy prime minister calls for higher wages for care workers | The Independent

I have been saying all of this for years and if social care is not sorted we can say goodbye to the NHS. Social care has been looked down on for years, by the Governments, the media, and many of the population of the UK.

It is so true that care workers need to be paid at least £15 per hour, otherwise, no one will go into care work and those in it go for other better-paid work, many with far fewer responsibilities and much better working conditions.

But, until social care is required by people they will continue to fail to understand the great importance there is for social care.

Source: Former Conservative deputy prime minister calls for higher wages for care workers | The Independent