care in the uk - a disgrace
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SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
928 carers are quitting every day.
928 carers in England quit a day as social care system 'starts to collapse'
Knowing lots of people who work in care, this doesn't surprise me. Training is minimal, conditions are appalling and the work is hard. Most carers can't afford to run a car so it's commuting (unpaid) between jobs by bicycle all day long. There doesn't seem to be a system in place to ensure that a particular carer is working in a particular area to minimise travel time, they just get sent wherever. Basically it's deliveroo for a bare minimum of human dignity.
928 carers in England quit a day as social care system 'starts to collapse'
Knowing lots of people who work in care, this doesn't surprise me. Training is minimal, conditions are appalling and the work is hard. Most carers can't afford to run a car so it's commuting (unpaid) between jobs by bicycle all day long. There doesn't seem to be a system in place to ensure that a particular carer is working in a particular area to minimise travel time, they just get sent wherever. Basically it's deliveroo for a bare minimum of human dignity.
mojo pixy
interesting times
I discovered today that support staff where I work are no longer allowed to use petty cash to buy food or drinks while out with clients. Now, either they must pay for it out of their own minimum wage or the clients must buy it from their paltry benefits.
That's definitely going to make social care better.
ETA: in no way do I blame the company for this. They're at the mercy of LA finding and govt policy. But I'm sure more staff will be lost over it, as they were last year when paid breaks were got rid if.
That's definitely going to make social care better.
ETA: in no way do I blame the company for this. They're at the mercy of LA finding and govt policy. But I'm sure more staff will be lost over it, as they were last year when paid breaks were got rid if.
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BCBlues
Lend us a Twenner
Absolutely.
I also found out from a carer who visits a relative of mine that they have to scan a company supplied mobile in and out of each visit. If they only have to stay a short while for e.g. If family are there and have done tasks, then say for example they have an half hour slot but were only there for ten minutes; the carer will be paid ten minutes but the company will still claim half hour from local social services.
Like others have said above its a mess. Profit before people all over.
HoratioCuthbert
Deep seated inconsequence
<snip> I'm sure that post was badly written, time for bed
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coley
Well-Known Member
True, but care companies who argue the toss with social services are out on their ear,.
"Well Mr Coley, while we agree you haven't had a fee increase in seven years, we have companies who can provide care for less than what you are asking"
Of course they can,
Winterbourne View hospital abuse - Wikipedia
Ring any bells?
Any decent investigative journalist looking into these 'care companies' would have a field day regarding ...mmm, not on a public forum,had me wrists slapped enough.
But very expensive 'supported living' models have been on the increase in recent years.
Where's mcayntire when you need him
coley
Well-Known Member
Supported/independent living, yer on yer own mate, here's three individual 15 minutes 'care packages' on a daily basis to make sure yer still alive.
I jest not, 'care packages' are how they are described, 'its been assessed that the 'customer in question' requires' an average of.....
Now the 'customer in question' was assessed as needing lifetime residential care by a team of highly qualified social workers and other medical professionals a few years back, suddenly his/her needs have 'changed' !?
No they haven't, but the members of the original 'team' have taken early retirement on health grounds and their successors (care managers grade 1, look it up) are under immense pressure to trim budgets.
Christ on a Crutch, nobody has less respect for 'medical/social services professionals' than me, but to watch all the decent ones ( of which once was the majority) being forced out by a bunch of self serving bean counters and being replaced by by an Ill trained, subservient jobsworths is galling to say the least.
But, within a society that seems to have lost the ability to care, what can you do?
Oh, we will carry on as long as possible, but there comes a financial and personal crisis where you just have to give up.
Sorry.
hash tag
Books, not bombs
There was a time when meals on wheels was another level of support. I appreciate that this is not what MoW were for but they were human contact for some people, not to mention that they kept an eye on people. In Wandsworth, MoW was contracted out to people who were not allowed to or did not want to care about their clients ie. they dropped the food off and ran not to mention they have virtually disappeared as a service.
Shechemite
Be the sun and all will see you
Where's mcayntire when you need him
Well... as a SU in 'supported accommodation', I managed - through covert recordings and being prepared to put up with a lot of abuse from staff - to get two staff members disciplined (for leaving SU records lauding around - but by god they was so much they got away with) and the provider to change to way they dealt with SU records, and SU complaints.
Was going to go full McIntyre. Expose it all. But then had another breakdown and got sectioned instead.
Oh well, fortune is fickle.
catinthehat
Failed VK = Replicant
Almost a year into my caring role and some of the things I have noticed:
Its laughable how the leaflets and website all talk about the need for the carer to look after themselves, stay in good health and so on - how do you do that when you are basically trapped indoors 24/7 ? I am more fortunate than some as my brother comes to stay with Pa when I have to go away to work which is about 10 weeks a year and keeps me sane (ish). It is very hard to shake the feeling that you have worked your ass off all your life and practiced delayed gratification in terms of having a decent decade at the end to potter, travel, be with your partner in the same place and now its back to your first decade - not being allowed out when you want to and being moaned at by your father!
- Total lack of co ordination between hospitals, doctors, OT, Social Work
- Information on Government and LA website which is either out of date or incorrect
- Abundance of plastic implements handed out and delivered - not requested or needed
- Zero availability of any respite carer for even an hour a week
- Home adaptations etc stated as funded or part funded - in reality not funded at all
- Told by three different professionals that Carers Allowance was means tested and as I had savings I was not entitled. Turns out this is not correct and needed to cover NI contributions which I was paying myself
Its laughable how the leaflets and website all talk about the need for the carer to look after themselves, stay in good health and so on - how do you do that when you are basically trapped indoors 24/7 ? I am more fortunate than some as my brother comes to stay with Pa when I have to go away to work which is about 10 weeks a year and keeps me sane (ish). It is very hard to shake the feeling that you have worked your ass off all your life and practiced delayed gratification in terms of having a decent decade at the end to potter, travel, be with your partner in the same place and now its back to your first decade - not being allowed out when you want to and being moaned at by your father!
hash tag
Books, not bombs
If the "agencies" like social services, hospitals Gp's Etc. shared the same budget, there would be less protection of funds and palming a person
on to another agency - win all round. As it is, doctors tell a patient to go to A&E (saves doctors budget), Gov't tells us to go to chemist to save the doctors Etc. It's all a terrible nightmare!
on to another agency - win all round. As it is, doctors tell a patient to go to A&E (saves doctors budget), Gov't tells us to go to chemist to save the doctors Etc. It's all a terrible nightmare!
ash
Inittogether
Generally now it's a weekly or monthly delivery of freezer to microwave meals so no human contact at all !!
coley
Well-Known Member
MoW, Age concern etc, all once shining examples of voluntary services but slowly turned into 'commercial providers" with shareholders and expensive management boards to pay for.
Buggered if I know how it's happened, but most of the major charity's in the field of social care seem to have all become commercial organisations and the small charities seem to have disappeared!?
coley
Well-Known Member
Word, and word again.
The local GPs have contracted out their out of hours and home visit services, so,you phone these exceedingly well paid private contractors and what do you get!? "you want a home visit? Fine but the earliest we can arrange will be in six hours, perhaps sir/madam would like to consider the local A&E where waiting times are only 4 hours"
Now we will move onto other budgets, social services moved out of providing residential care when supported living became the cheaper option, but it was only the "cheaper option" because of the "independent living fund and one or two other benefits, when these were removed a couple of years ago and suddenly social services had to pay the whole care package for people deemed capable of 'independent living',the shit really hit the fan.
Result? A shortage of residential placements and the proliferation of multiple occupancy!
Fuck me I could go on all night about the disaster that is 'vulnerable adult care' I have seen it on all fronts, as a provider and a user and it's a fucking grade one disaster, unless, that is, you are one of the vast army of shiny arsed jobsworths recruited to try and make it work, every relevation of the latest disaster produces yet another layer of officialdom.
coley
Well-Known Member
I was, and me and the boss are lucky, we have pensions and most of our majors bills, mortage etc will be paid off in the next year, but,we were of a generation where lifetime steady employment was available, our two sons also benefitted from that.
but their children.....?
coley
Well-Known Member
Where's your social worker in all of this? were you offered the services of an independent advocate?
Coming back to this, a first step would be to integrate health and social care funding. On my ward roughly 40% of the patients are medically fit and ready to leave hospital, but are waiting either a package of care (with the rate limiting factor being care agencies having enough workers to do the work) or awaiting a bed in a residential / nursing home. The cost of one of my beds is around 300-400 quid a day, so this is directly displacing enormous cost onto the NHS. Is the aggregate cost of delays to transfer of patients was bourne by a single body, there would be institutional pressure to organise services to minimise it.
The harder nut to crack to improve things is how to drive up wages in the care sector to both further engage the workers in their work and recruit / retain staff. I suspect that a socialised care agency would be a start- I don't know of three are any areas with these as a part of the array of providers - anyone know?
I don't know of any. Most of the carers used to be employed by the Council until a few years ago. I've friends who work for Harrow, Brent and Kingston.
The model is to turn Sheltered Housing into intermediate Care Homes for those with manageable care needs. Extra Care facilities for those with substantial needs and to only send people to Care or Nursing Homes those with Critical needs.
In theory this should prevent bed blockers who aren't self funding. But there aren't enough provision or flats. Social care funding has been cut back to the bone. People with Critical needs, like dementia and parkinsons, are being given sheltered housing flats with three 15 minute care calls a day.
It's only through the extra unpaid efforts of carers and sheltered housing staff that it's sort of working at all. We're being made redundant in the autumn. Don't know what will happen then.
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hash tag
Books, not bombs
Sheltered roles have changed dramatically over the years. These days, sheltered housing, where staff still exist, are a lot more hands off. Also, the client profile in sheltered these days seems to be much younger than ever before, which can be a good thing. I know a few areas, where there are no sheltered scheme based staff anymore. Where once schemes had live in staff, some now have 9-5 officers and some have staff who visit occasionally.
"we're being made redundant in the autmn". Sorry to here this. Richmond have combined with Wandsworth; who knows where that will lead.
Another element in the pass the parcel (pass the cost on to any agency other than mine) is the 111 service. Doctor tells patient see how it goes and if there is any change Etc. call 111 (because it will save my budget). Patient calls 111 who invarably decline to send a doctor or district nurse, instead opting to send an ambulance. 9 times out of 10, these people do not need to go to hospital, they need decent home care or they need some sort of supported housing which has been severly delayed because of the enormous pressure on social services. I can't tell you ow many times I have had ambulance crews saying to me it should not be down to them and they are acting in some sort of social care role.
Meanwhile Sodexho just bought Prestige Nursing Care as an entry to the self funder care market.
What Sodexho know about care is anyone's guess, same as Mitie who bought a few operators and low balled a shit load of local authority contracts to get scale and were left holding the baby when the music stopped on hourly rates.
juice_terry
Here is a man who would not take it anymore.
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mojo pixy
interesting times
I was reading a report today about how home-based care in the USA is increasingly developing a "gig" model where providers run an online portal and service users book appointments for support which are filled on an ad hoc basis from a stable of zero-hours workers.
Fucking Hell.
Fucking Hell.
It's happening here too, there is a provider in London just started doing it for self funders.
Tbf to them they are paying care workers 11.50 an hour and rising according to them, if that is true that is above most of the sector
The apps taking on social care's 'broken' business model
Technology does have a part to play in taking out costs and making the service more efficient, especially as more technologically savvy people get older. As well as remote monitoring to reduce the need for calls in the first place.
The issue though is that the cost savings become profit taking rather than being shared with the workers and the risk of exclusion of those older folk without a smartphone etc.
Also some providers using uber now to ferry people about. There is an uber for disabled access vehicles which I never knew.
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