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Tuesday, 2 December 2014
Embrace-learning and #CarersUK have launched a suite of e-learning courses designed to support carers and people working with carers. The package includes four titles - About Me: Building Resilience for Caring; Carer Awareness: Supporting Frontline Practice; Supporting Carers at Work; and The #CareAct Unpacked. To find out more, please visit http://goo.gl/SPczN0
Former care and support minister Paul Burstow, has published his Key to Care report. Amongst its key findings are:
- Some service users have been treated by 50 different carers in a single year
- There have been significant cuts in funding at a time when the number of people needing care has risen
- The shrinkage in council budgets has led to framework contracts that offer little predictability of work and revenue
- The system is facing a recruitment crisis. "More people need care and there is less money to pay for it and not enough people willing to do the work."
The home care system is "nearing crisis point" and "appears designed to keep caring professional relationships from forming between workers and those they care for”.
Peter Beresford takes a magnifying glass to the Care Act.
Despite the explicit thread running through the Act, "the assumption that
the individual is best placed to judge the individual's wellbeing", the
reality is that mere lip service is being paid to a service user's empowerment.
The final decisions about a person's needs will ultimately remain with the
council. Furthermore, such decisions will be restricted by the extent of
funding from central government.
Independent advocacy also comes under his spotlight. The
definition of advocacy that councils are bound to employ is a very narrow one.
The emphasis is on the need for clear communication and understanding. There is
no obligation to ensure that the service users’ rights and even needs are being
maintained. More lip service?
Monday, 1 December 2014
Are you looking to learn or develop skills, and gain nationally-recognised qualifications, which will open opportunities for you to work and/or advance further in the health and social sector? Please visit: http://www.embrace-learning.co.uk or give us a call on 0161 928 9987. Our team of advisors look forward to hearing from you.
An in-depth look at how the #CareAct will affect homecare providers. The 'traditional' council-defined services will be replaced by systems which assess and provide for people's needs. The Act's statutory guidance includes:-
- the involvement of service users in deciding their care and support plans
- the greater use of low level services to help people remain at home
- homecare providers to encourage family carers to gain additional council support
- councils to be responsible for 'market-shaping' the local market comprehensively
- councils now must make decisions on purchasing homecare based on value for money and not on economies alone.
A moving and thought-provoking account of a son who works
full-time 'shifts' caring for his mother who has advanced dementia.
He now appreciates the tasks he was once dreading. It took
a simple mental readjustment he describes as "[disengaging] my overactive,
self-obsessed, 21st-century brain and [allowing] it to happen."
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