Lockdown has brought families of learning disabled people to their knees | Learning disability | The Guardian

12/08/2020 Chris Sterry commenting1 Comment

The support system so many rely on was struggling before the coronavirus crisis. Now it is truly broken

Source: Lockdown has brought families of learning disabled people to their knees | Learning disability | The Guardian

One thought on “Lockdown has brought families of learning disabled people to their knees | Learning disability | The Guardian”

Chris Sterry commenting says:

12/08/2020 at 3:39 pm

Great that the media have at last noticed that Social Care is in crisis and was well before COVID-19, at least the last 20 or more years.

Yes, COVID-19 has made the crisis much worse as did austerity cuts before the coronavirus pandemic.

The article states ‘It shouldn’t have taken a worldwide pandemic to bring the UK’s social care crisis to national attention – but it has. If the system was struggling before, it is truly broken now. This crisis has resulted in some people’s needs increasing exponentially, while costs soar due to increased safety measures such as the provision of PPE – and yet the cuts keep coming.’.

Well I have tried to bring it to the nations attention by a petition I created, Solve the crisis in Social Care,
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care

I even wrote to The Guardian, but they did not respond.

The article quotes many reasons relating to the crisis and I state more points to consider

1. see the post on my blog, Carer Voice, where Matt Hancock has refused to pay Carers the Real Living Wage https://carervoice.wordpress.com/2020/04/23/matt-hancock-refuses-to-commit-to-paying-care-workers-the-real-living-wage/
2. I also thank the Government for bringing back their recruitment campaign ‘Every Day is Different’, but it would be even better if they had improved the salary and other conditions as stated in the petition.
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care
We all have reasons for reaching out and some of mine are mentioned below
• 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, at least 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 It is not just the rate of pay, but many others including
• Conditions of Service
• Expenses
• Sick Pay schemes
Lack of funding for Social Care is a major problem and this leads to
• not only insufficient funding for all forms of Social Care
• a lack of people wishing to come into the profession due to the abysmal rate of pay
• partly causing a lack of quality of care being delivered in some areas and other problems
• causing stress and exhaustion for family members providing care to their relatives, due to the lack of Social Care
• If the crisis in Social Care is not met, this will then increase the crisis in health.

Please could you see if you could show your support by signing this petition and then sharing it wherever you can
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/solve-the-crisis-in-social-care

Currently, you may not need Social Care, but 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

Social Care needs YOU

Thank you

Chris

#care #socialcare #crisis

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