Carer of a disabled daughter, Rachel Adam Smith, is asking for your help to call for the Government to pay family carers at least minimum wage for their 24/7 work
Source: Campaign: Family carers deserve at least minimum wage for their 24/7 work – Special Needs Jungle
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I agree, Carers Allowance is nowhere sufficient and while assumed to be a payment for caring is in fact a payment to supplement loss of income while caring, hence the payments stop when accessing retirement pensions.
Wholly unacceptable and this just shows where caring is considered to be in the ‘eyes’ of the Government.
For Social Care itself is nowhere near the level it should be, as it should be up with the NHS, for each can not exist without the other.
So, with the Government is placed on a far too low level, hence the virtual no funding for social care.
Even when social care is considered by the Government and also the media, it is assumed that the only social care is for the elderly in care homes and while extremely important, it is just not so.
Social Care is vast, may be as vast as the NHS, if not greater, for there is
Supported Living
Home Care
Hospice care
and many others
Even home care can be split further for there are many ways this can be achieved
By Family Carers on an unpaid basis, may be with Carers Allowance
Paid carers from a Carer Service Provider
Personal Care Assistants employed directly by the person in need of care or by their family by use of Direct Payments should it be funded through social care or Personal Health Budgets if fully funded through CHC (Continuing Health Care)
There is also care be provided by self funding, mainly when the person in need of care has funds in excess of £23500 pa.
None of the above is sufficiently funded by Government to Local Authorities (LAs) and then by LAs to ensure care is provided. Quality care is spasmodic mainly due to insufficient persons wishing to come into the Care Profession due to the abysmal rates of pay, working conditions, conditions of employment, holiday and sick pay, travel expenses, etc. So Quality is not guaranteed and may be some of those employed within the Care Profession, which I feel will be a minority, or it is in my own experience and not capable or not wishing to provide good quality care and this always is the case with a minority of Care Service Providers.
Until finance and other issues are dealt with, then the poor quality of care will not be addressed.
So this is very much down to the Government and Government Policy and although social care is now being mentioned, the ac tions of the Government brought this into context, when, instaed of providing the much needed and long awaited funding for Social Care, they proceeding to suspending the Care Act 2014, which, in effect relieves LAs of some of the legal responsibilities to provide care.
So my trust is not being increased, but greatly diminished in Government, so some months ago I created the petition ‘Solve the crisis in Social Care and this is my current promotion
I do, also, have a petition, Solve the crisis in Social Care.
You may be wondering why I am promoting this petition as we are in the Coronavirus, COVID 19 crisis and certainly now that Social Care is appearing to have some signs of recognition.
It is because of this recognition and I do appreciate the Government is concentrating on COVID 19, and my thoughts are with Boris Johnson and his family and other families in similar positions, but Social Care has been forgotten for many years and certainly with regards to funding.
I have been involved with Social Care, be it with regards to family or on a wider basis for over some 40 years and funding was always an issue and the last 10 years have has made the situation much worse.
So, the recognition is an impetus on which to build and to ensure the recognition continues when COVID 19 has been overcome.
So here is how I am currently promoting the petition.
We all have reasons for reaching out and some of mine are mentioned below
As I am very concerned about Social Care could I also introduce you to my latest Petition, ‘Solve the crisis in Social Care’.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care
With the Government, Social Care is the forgotten service and Yes, the Government as plenty to deal with currently, but more should have been done for Social Care well before the COVID 19 situation.
This section of care has been devoid of enough money for far too long and austerity measures only compounded this.
The starting salary for all care workers should be the Real Living Wage and not, as currently the National Living Wage or for some under 25 years The Minimum Wage. The rate of pay is abysmal when compared to the responsibilities they undertake.
Therefore, I created the Petition ‘Solve the crisis in Social Care’,
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care
It is not just the rate of pay, but many others including
• Conditions of Service
• Travel Expenses
• Sick Pay schemes
My own family and many other families rely on Social Care to help us look after our relatives who have major needs relating to care. We all have, over the years, done what we can to help manage these needs of our relatives, but there comes a time when the needs exceed what we ourselves can realistically deliver, hence our, now, reliance on Social Care and without it our relatives needs will not be met.
If the crisis in Social Care is not met, this will then increase the crisis in health.
Please could you consider signing the petition and then sharing it.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care
Lack of funding for Social Care is a major problem and this leads to
1. not only insufficient funding for all forms of Social Care
2. a lack of people wishing to come into the profession due to the abysmal rate of pay
3. partly causing a lack of quality of care being delivered in some areas and other problems
4. causing stress and exhaustion for family members providing care to their relatives, due to the lack of Social Care
Please could you see if you could show your support by signing this petition and then sharing it wherever you can.
For more information I refer you to my web page
https://carervoice.wordpress.com/petition-solve-the-crisis-in-social-care /
Please consider signing the petition and then sharing.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care
It goes without saying that I am greatly disappointed with the latest Budget, not even the miserly £1 or £1.5 billion promised by Boris, but unfortunately this is how it is for Social Care and those in need of Social Care.
It is what we have come to accept, but not without question and challenge and the Coronavirus Pandemic is making Social Care even more important.
However, the Government as shown their contempt for Social Care by suspending the Care Act 2014 some weeks ago, rather than providing increased funding to Local Authorities so they can, not only maintain current Social Care levels, which are really well below than required, but increase the level of Social Care to what is really required.
You will never know when you maybe in need of Social Care, so please support Social Care, before it is too late
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care
Thank you
Chris
#care #socialcare #crisis
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