‘My brother with Down’s Syndrome is slowly spiralling’: The severity of the social care crisis laid bare

Nearly half of social care providers in England have been forced to close part of their organisation or hand back contracts to councils due to cost pressures in the last year, i reveals

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This is the true state of Social Care in the UK and this government is not listening, but then no previous government has listened.

The closed ears of UK governments have lead to this crisis, which if anyone cared to look would have seen it coming well before 2010, but the Tory austerity cuts from then only enhanced the crisis much more and still is to this day, with no seen improvements coming from any future governments.

It is not only with Down’s Syndrome but in every aspect of social care both childrens and adults. It requires an immediate increase, of at least, £12 billion to reverse the decline, but to enable continued sustainability much more in all the coming years. For if it is not done we can say goodbye to social care and following very closely the NHS as well. For without a sustained and credible social care the NHS crisis will continue to get worse no matter how much is given to the NHS.

Social care is the immediate priority and then the NHS. both are in severe deficit of staff, social care more so than the NHS. While NHS staff salaries need to be increased in-line with inflation, all social care not only require an inflation increase in salaries but a massive upgrading from the forthcoming April 2023 £11 per hour to around £13/14 this year and £15 next year. To do nothing more than the increase to £11 of the National Liviving Wage is effectively completely saying social care can end to any degree.

Human rights will be ignored and safeguarding alerts will escalate and everyone will blame social workers when the real culprits will be the government.

 

Source: ‘My brother with Down’s Syndrome is slowly spiralling’: The severity of the social care crisis laid bare

Boris Johnson admits he misled Parliament over Partygate – but says ‘he didn’t mean to’ – Mirror Online

Boris Johnson will be hauled before the Commons Privileges Committee for an explosive showdown over whether he deliberately misled MPs with what he knew about lockdown parties in Downing Street

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By this admission it shows he had no idea what he was doing and only acted on views of others, so perhaps a ‘Tub of Lard’ would have been also suitable as Prime Minister, or was he a tub of lard. His actions all depended on who pulled his strings.

He shows he was totally incompetent not only as Prime Minister, but also as an MP, the best he could do is leave completely, so can his strings be pulled again.

 

Source: Boris Johnson admits he misled Parliament over Partygate – but says ‘he didn’t mean to’ – Mirror Online

Government has no plans to review level of social work bursaries despite nine-year freeze – Community Care

The government has no plans to review the level of social work bursaries despite them having been frozen since 2014. Care minister Helen Whately said the government did not intend to “assess the adequacy of social work bursaries for the forthcoming academic year”, 2023-24, in response to a written parliamentary question from Labour’s Emma Lewell-Buck. Whately […]

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Yes, bursaries frozen again, but the word coming forth is ‘A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are committed to supporting social workers in their education and training. We invest in Think Ahead – a graduate fast track programme to become a qualified social worker supporting people with mental health needs – and we provide financial aid to students to qualify through the social work bursary and education support grant [which funds practice placements].” ‘

This to some extent is true, but not the whole truth for support has to be sufficient, but that is not part of the promise, so student social workers are let down by the government while studying and when qualified again let down as the salaries to be received are also not keeping pace with inflation.

Government lies or half-truths or is half being generous, which this government will never be.

 

Source: Government has no plans to review level of social work bursaries despite nine-year freeze – Community Care

Shortfall of £2.3bn a year in England’s care homes ‘putting people at risk’ | Social care | The Guardian

Exclusive: Funding hole directly affects elderly people whose bills are entirely or partly paid for by councils

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Yes, the £7 billion is just scratching the surface and will do nothing to improve the quality of social care, just perhaps, stop any further declines.

To improve quality the staff vacancies in all areas of social care need to be filled, but the rates currently being paid to carers will never achieve this, so these rates need to be considerably increased without delay, for to delay the staffing shortages will only get worse.

Even the increase to the National Living Wage to £10.42 in April 2023 will not bring in more care workers for that rate is far from a Living Wage and then it is reduced by having to pay income tax. to bring in more care workers the rate has to be in the region of £14.00 per hour and also an alteration to our immigration criteria to encourage people from outwith the UK to come to work in care.

This Government and all previous governments have allowed by their inability or unwillingness to properly fund social care for social care to continue to deteriorate. this deterioration increases health inequalities which are and will continue to reduce the quality of care in the NHS.

At least £12 billion just for social care is required and this government needs to pay this to local authorities without any further delays, or we can say goodbye to both social care and the NHS.

So to provide substantially more funding for social care and in doing so cover all vacancies and more will not only improve the quality of care in social care, but also the NHS, as both are in dire need of major improvements and currently staffing levels in both can’t do more than they are currently doing.

We need a listening government, but I can’t see this coming from this current government or the next one, be it Labour or Conservative.

Source: Shortfall of £2.3bn a year in England’s care homes ‘putting people at risk’ | Social care | The Guardian

New Sanction Trap For UC Claimants With £250 Incentive For DWP Staff

The more that Tory governments do with regards to welfare benefits make it clear that welfare is not part of the process and punishment is becoming more and more its objective.

Rather than pay DWP staff incentives to do more, why not increase benefits for claimants, especially those who do get into work for a period of time, while they adjust to manage with work and assess any difficulties they could well experience.

Benefits should be there to help and not punish, the government needs to be educated, perhaps for the first time.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

Universal credit (UC) claimants are to be faced with a new sanction trap disguised as help to move into work. The scheme has been condemned by the DWP staff union who say the government is “hellbent on making it more difficult for people to claim benefits”, even though jobcentre workers stand to gain from a £250 ‘incentive’ if their office tops a league table.

UC sanctions are already at a record high. Over 98% of all sanctions are for failure to attend an interview, with over half a million claimants being sanctioned for this reason last year.

Yet, under the new Additional Jobcentre Support scheme claimants are being forced to attend  a jobcentre 10 times over a two week period.  In these obligatory sessions they will have “work search conversations” and “support sessions”. Missing a single session is likely to lead…

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Social Care Costs See Thousands Chased For Debt

It doesn’t help those who are contributing to their Social Care, but since 2010 the Tory governments have been subjecting Local Authorities (LAs) to totally unjustified austerity cuts, thereby drastically reducing the income they have to fund services, but all blame for service cuts is placed on LAs and not the Government, which it should be, Governments have to be made accountable. Yes, we have General elections every 4/5 years, but accountability should be immediate not some years hence.

But LAs are not completely blameless, for the Financial Assessments leave a lot to be desired, for some assessors as, I have come across, don’t fully understand the system they are using to do the assessments.

The biggest omission I find is with regards to Disability Related Expenses, (DREs) which is expenditure which persons with disability/health conditions have to make, but these expenses can be offset to the Social Care charge. Of course, proof of these payments are required and this is perhaps another problem for how many of us keep such information.

So, the problem is at least 2 fold, DREs are not always discussed or if they are not in sufficient detail, but then there is the lack of proof people will have retained to prove they made the expenditure.

Another problem is when disability benefits are increased, this increase is included in the social care calculation, so much of the increase will not be available to the person claiming social care has it has been incorporated into the charge they will have to pay for their social care.

But, another problem is the discriminatory nature of what disabilities and conditions are deemed to be social care as opposed to health care. With health care there is no direct charge to the claimant, as there is with social care.

While social care is processed by the local authority social care department, the health portion is processed by the Health Continuing Health Care department, (CHC) and both processes are dealt with separately, sometimes within the same meeting with the claimant, but in other separately.

If it is deemed that there could be a health element to the care required then further investigation could be in the form of 24 hour health grids where each individual action has to be recorded in detail including the time taken to perform the action. The information I have found is from the previous Clinical Commissioning Group, (CCG), but these have been replaced by ICBs from 1 July 2022, but here is the latest information about care I have found.

Then the lengthy process of deciding if there is a health element and if there is the split between health and social care which can be a very lengthy time process. While the implementation of care should not be delayed while this debate is occurring it does in many instances, thereby causing, in some instances, much delay for much need care to be implemented.
All of this takes precious time which should be being spent on receiving the care required, that is if persons to care for the person needing can be found, which is another great problem, as there is a major insufficiency of carers for a number of reasons, mainly down to the lack of funding for social care, which leads to very poor rates of pay for carers, poor working conditions, including lack of suitable holiday pay, travel expenses, sick pay and more, but also due to the UK Immigration Policies which are not great for persons wishing to come to the UK to be carers. Much needs to be done, but it appears very little is being done, currently to remedy any, if at all the problems.
Care is deteriorating in many ways, the availability, the standards and much more, this government and all future governments need to wake up and understand, appreciate and sufficiently fund social care.

Same Difference

More than 60,000 adults with disabilities and long-term illnesses in England were chased for debts by councils last year after failing to pay for their social care support at home.

Claimants told the BBC they can’t afford the charges amid rising food and rent prices, along with the additional costs of living with disabilities.

Councils took legal action against 330 people in 2021-22.

The Local Government Association said such action was a “last option”.

Councils ask social care recipients to contribute towards the home care they receive in nearly all areas of England, but previous BBC research found charges had risen by thousands of pounds a year for some adults.

Some disabled people have now told the BBC they felt they had little choice but to live without home care, while others said they feared bailiffs being called in over unpaid debts.

Campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts said the…

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Autism: How My Autistic Foster Brother Inspired My Life’s Work

Yes, caring can bring so much to any relationships, when it is done as it should be, but it needs a great deal of understanding, flexibility, respect and being so adaptable to whatever occurs and much more, especially putting the person who may need care at the centre of everything.

These skills are essential and not everyone will have them or more than likely not aware that they have them, especially at the start. It is learning from all who are involved, the persons who may need care, the persons providing care and any others.

This was so much with myself for I joined my to be wife’s family in 1984 and knew nothing about any disabilities and not even come really across any persons with disabilities and having no brothers or sisters not even sharing my life with anyone except my own parents. My wife, a single parent looking after 3 children for many years, 2 daughters and one son.

As I joined the family the son was leaving home to be married, leaving the 2 daughters, youngest being 13 and the next 15 being the daughter with disabilities. She had severe learning disabilities and multiple physical and a sensory disabilities. Her communication was very limited, but everyone took to each other very well.

I had a very steep learning curve to climb and took time to understand what was involved and gradually helped in any ways I could. Not only did I not know, initially about disabilities but had no experience in dealing with the respective authorities, so followed my wife’s lead to a major extent. Over time, not really sure how long, but certainly within less than a year I gained the experience to deal with more, even the authorities and with my then wife became a good team in looking after both daughters. As time went on my wife’s health started to deteriorate, most likely due to the pressures of caring over the years, especially being a lone parent. Around 2000 I became aware of Autism and from what I understood with this awareness I was convinced that my disabled daughter was also autistic and eventually managed to obtain an autistic diagnosis. Becoming aware of autism provided many answers to the behaviours being shown and experienced by my daughter with disabilities and I became much better at being able to understand many, if not all of her behaviours, but learning never goes away, for there is always so much more to learn.

Yes, her behaviours could have been challenging, but only because of ignorance in how to correctly assess and then deal with them appropriately.

This was further enhanced when we had to start to engage with carers, as my wife’s health continued to deteriorate and my own starting to do so.

We started by employing our own, which were funded through direct payments from our Local Authority, but we went through many carers until we found and engaged with a few which we could trust and had complete confidence in, not that the others were not competent, but when having people within your own household, being your own home and a place of employment for others much more is required for good employee and employer relationships, let alone the relationships with the person being cared for, which in the most essential.

Eventually, this had to become a 24/7 care package and while retaining the 2 carers we employed directly used a care provider for the rest of the care package. After an initial problem with the original care provider we found another with whom we could work with well and as time went on it worked perfectly, not only did they understand our household they did all they could to find carers that fitted in well. Not always successful, but where not they provided more carers until a great team was found.

Unfortunately my wife died on 26 September 2020 but with the good team of carers the great care was maintained for my daughter and at times they were also looking after me, to some extent, during my own loss.

Even though the care for my daughter was great, due to her disabilities her conditions continued to deteriorate to some degree and health authorities were consulted as and where and when required and this was good too. My daughters wish and my own and my late wife’s were that our daughter lived with us at home and with the great care she was receiving this was how it progressed.

But on 4 October 2022 my daughter succumbed to her deteriorating health and as everyone was so devoted to her, the loss of her was severely felt by everyone.

Even now some 4 months on many of the carers are still in touch with me and we are helping each other to come to terms with our loss.

Over the years I have been using all my experiences gained in being in my family and talking to other carers and their families and use this in my dealing with our local Government and health authouritie and disability charities, being on various committees and some Boards.

Not only am I using my experiences gained, but it is helping myself in dealing with my own losses.

So being involved can and is good for many reasons and even if behaviours can be seen to challenge this should not be seen as a problem to be feared, but problems to understand and deal with appropriately, for we are all experts in our own fields and all need to be seen as such and everyone is or should be part of the team be they paid professionals, family, volunteers and others, but essentially the person at the centre the person in need of care.

In this all will be better cared for, but funding can’t and should never be ignored for both health and social care are left well short of the funds required, perhaps social care even more so than health, in many instances, not only causing insufficiency of services available, but severe staff shortages, and the moral of all concerned.

Funding and sufficient funding to maintain sustainability has to be a major priority and in this the Government needs to listen and fully understand, which is currently not occurring.

But they have to for the sustainability of health and social care services and for the continued lives of persons with disabilities and their families.

Families can only do so much, currently saving the UK £193 billion a year. Carers UK, Yes, caring can bring so much to any relationships, when it is done as it should be, but it needs a great deal of understanding, flexibility, respect and being so adaptable to whatever occurs and much more, especially putting the person who may need care at the centre of everything.

These skills are essential and not everyone will have them or more than likely not aware that they have them, especially at the start. It is learning from all who are involved, the persons who may need care, the persons providing care and any others.

This was so much with myself for I joined my to be wife’s family in 1984 and knew nothing about any disabilities and not even come really across any persons with disabilities and having no brothers or sisters not even sharing my life with anyone except my own parents. My wife, a single parent looking after 3 children for many years, 2 daughters and one son.

As I joined the family the son was leaving home to be married, leaving the 2 daughters, youngest being 13 and the next 15 being the daughter with disabilities. She had severe learning disabilities and multiple physical and a sensory disabilities. Her communication was very limited, but everyone took to each other very well.

I had a very steep learning curve to climb and took time to understand what was involved and gradually helped in any ways I could. Not only did I not know, initially about disabilities but had no experience in dealing with the respective authorities, so followed my wife’s lead to a major extent. Over time, not really sure how long, but certainly within less than a year I gained the experience to deal with more, even the authorities and with my then wife became a good team in looking after both daughters. As time went on my wife’s health started to deteriorate, most likely due to the pressures of caring over the years, especially being a lone parent. Around 2000 I became aware of Autism and from what I understood with this awareness I was convinced that my disabled daughter was also autistic and eventually managed to obtain an autistic diagnosis. Becoming aware of autism provided many answers to the behaviours being shown and experienced by my daughter with disabilities and I became much better at being able to understand many, if not all of her behaviours, but learning never goes away, for there is always so much more to learn.

Yes, her behaviours could have been challenging, but only because of ignorance in how to correctly assess and then deal with them appropriately.

This was further enhanced when we had to start to engage with carers, as my wife’s health continued to deteriorate and my own starting to do so.

We started by employing our own, which were funded through direct payments from our Local Authority, but we went through many carers until we found and engaged with a few which we could trust and had complete confidence in, not that the others were not competent, but when having people within your own household, being your own home and a place of employment for others much more is required for good employee and employer relationships, let alone the relationships with the person being cared for, which in the most essential.

Eventually, this had to become a 24/7 care package and while retaining the 2 carers we employed directly used a care provider for the rest of the care package. After an initial problem with the original care provider we found another with whom we could work with well and as time went on it worked perfectly, not only did they understand our household they did all they could to find carers that fitted in well. Not always successful, but where not they provided more carers until a great team was found.

Unfortunately my wife died on 26 September 2020 but with the good team of carers the great care was maintained for my daughter and at times they were also looking after me, to some extent, during my own loss.

Even though the care for my daughter was great, due to her disabilities her conditions continued to deteriorate to some degree and health authorities were consulted as and where and when required and this was good too. My daughters wish and my own and my late wife’s were that our daughter lived with us at home and with the great care she was receiving this was how it progressed.

But on 4 October 2022 my daughter succumbed to her deteriorating health and as everyone was so devoted to her, the loss of her was severely felt by everyone.

Even now some 4 months on many of the carers are still in touch with me and we are helping each other to come to terms with our loss.

Over the years I have been using all my experiences gained in being in my family and talking to other carers and their families and use this in my dealing with our local Government and health authourities and disability charities, being on various committees and some Boards.

Not only am I using my experiences gained, but it is helping myself in dealing with my own losses.

So being involved can and is good for many reasons and even if behaviours can be seen to challenge this should not be seen as a problem to be feared, but problems to understand and deal with appropriately, for we are all experts in our own fields and all need to be seen as such and everyone is or should be part of the team be they paid professionals, family, volunteers and others, but essentially the person at the centre the person in need of care.

In this all will be better cared for, but funding can’t and should never be ignored for both health and social care are left well short of the funds required, perhaps social care even more so than health, in many instances, not only causing insufficiency of services available, but severe staff shortages, and the moral of all concerned.

Funding and sufficient funding to maintain sustainability has to be a major priority and in this the Government needs to listen and fully understand, which is currently not occurring.

But they have to for the sustainability of health and social care services and for the continued lives of persons with disabilities and their families.

Families can only do so much, currently saving the UK £193 billion a year. Carers UK,

Same Difference

A woman who passed up going to university to care for her autistic foster brother has described how he inspired her to set up her own behavioural therapy centre.

Risca Solomon, from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, first met Dan when he was four years old.

His previous respite placements had broken down due to his challenging behaviour.

But Ms Solomon, whose parents were foster carers, wanted to help.

“When I first met Dan I was 18 and on work experience at a special school, and he touched my heart,” Ms Solomon said.

“I begged my parents, who’d been foster and respite carers since I was 11, to step in.”

Her parents were reluctant at first due to the level of care Dan would need, something they felt was beyond their level of experience and expertise.

But they agreed after Ms Solomon promised to be one of his primary care givers.

“It changed…

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The victim-shaming of Nicola Bulley has thrown an unflattering light on modern Britain

She’s the focus of ghoulish conspiracies and the police threw her reputation under the bus – her disappearance brought out the worst of us

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Yes, this is pure and simple victim-shaming, and yes, she was a vulnerable person, but, in our own way are not most of us to one extent or another.

For the Police to do their job there needs to be trust, but this trust is forever being broken, and not just the Lancashire force, but many others.

South Yorkshire for Hillsborough, Rotherham Sexual abuse scandal and others, then the MET, well where do you start, at least 6 under Cressida Dick, but even newer, including Carrick and Couzens scandals.  But there are many more and maybe many more to surface throughout the UK.

There are many Police officers who are doing a good job, but the actions of the few are being seen as to how all forces are operating.

It is said that years ago we all, mostly, trusted the Police and looked on them to help and not cause us harm, do we really want to become so afraid of the police as in America, where it appears to be shot first and ask questions later, if that is possible. But did we, I feel in the main we did, but that trust is no longer there in most respects and even more so in ethnic communities.

So how can we progress, well every police force needs an in-depth investigation, not by themselves and not really by other forces, but by a fully independent body, who is made up of a representative body of the UK population and all members of the body should have equal authority within that body. The respective reports would then need to be made public and any actions that need to be taken are taken. In any serious implications, some appropriate action could need to be taken before the report is published.

For all our own safety the trust in the police has to be recovered and then actions put in place to ensure the trust is maintained and errors of the past are not allowed to reoccur.

Safeguarding is extremely important and always needs to be a high priority.

Did some of this relate to the Tories cutting back on Police numbers so saving could be made, perhaps, but was it there well before, well cutting numbers certainly didn’t help as we have seen in many other areas, NHS for one, Social Care in another, but in many sections of the UK.

Pay freezes and austerity cuts are never the way and these all need to be reversed without any further delay. Otherwise there is no real way forward. Human Rights have to be respected and been seen to be respected

 

 

 

Source: The victim-shaming of Nicola Bulley has thrown an unflattering light on modern Britain

Painful periods? Spain just passed Europe’s first paid ‘menstrual leave’ | Euronews

The new law will also provide free period products and expand access to abortion.

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This is so good news for women, especially those in Spain and I so hope other countries will fllow this lead.

However, it will be so difficult in the UK even if such law is introduced as the main problem will be gaining access to a GP to sign the required sick-note, as if you have one it could take you over a week to get an appointment.

I am not placing the blame on GPs, but fully on this Tory Government for their total inability to fund the NHS sufficiently.

Care should be the main priority for all, but currently care is the last thing this government is concerned with, especially within the NHS, but even more so within social care.

Now this government wants to make getting sick-notes even harder, if you can get one in the first place, so who is going to help, certainly not this Government.

We urgently need a caring government, but is there one coming, I doubt it.

 

Source: Painful periods? Spain just passed Europe’s first paid ‘menstrual leave’ | Euronews

Multiple and complex needs found in backgrounds of children deprived of liberty – Community Care

The multiple and complex needs of children made the subject of deprivation of liberty (DoL) orders have been laid bare in an analysis published last week. The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory (Nuffield FJO) found that children had, on average, 4.2 of a set of 11 indicators of need or risk, including mental health issues, disability, […]

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‘Nuffield FJO director Lisa Harker warned: “Improving provision for this group of children is an urgent necessity; it is not only about building new children’s homes for the future, it is about urgently meeting the needs of children today.

“It will require a nationwide strategy, with significant commitment at a local and national level, led by national government. We know that a wide range of professionals, including senior members of the judiciary, have been actively and consistently calling for action to address the gross lack of suitable provision.” ‘

This is so true and I so doubt this government and any future government will take any action, let alone all actions.

Yes, new buildings or even adapted old ones are not, anywhere near the full requirement. For any building needs to be sufficiently and appropriately staffed and with the current vacancies it is hard to see where any of these staff will be coming from.

Providing staff of the required numbers is only just a part of the problem for they need much approrpriate training in many increasing areas, for while one child may be similar to another, that is not correct, for every child will have their own distinction needs in many areas. Understanding each child is a major requirement, as before any solutions are found the full extent of all problems need to be known and there is no room for assumptions. These problems could well change during any time period and these changes also need to be recognised whenever they occur or occurring and the right ways of dealing have to be there immediately.

For in many instances situations have been made much worse due to incorrect ways of dealing with situations being done, when other ways would have had more success. It is understanding each child and not just following a standard Rulebook, especially one which allows no other interventions.

It is inevitable that on occasions some ways may not be fully correct, and in these actions need to be taken very soon as possible.

But it is not just the children that need support for the staff there also need to be well supported, but not to instigate some coverup, as if wrongs have been done then covering up is also so wrong. But staff will need some support, some more than others, certainly emotional and many others.

But, in many instances it will be the lack of resources in many other areas, mental health for one, but they will be and are many others.

None of this will be easy and without sufficient and sustainable financing, both Government to LAs and then LAs to the facilities, successes will not be forthcoming, for it will lead to complete failure, as we have seen and are seeing with the current and previous lack of funding in these very essential services.

It is not that we can’t afford to fund, but that we can’t afford not to fund.

Safeguarding has always to be a major requirement and so essential.

But what is really required is a fully caring government, but then do I believe in miracles?

Source: Multiple and complex needs found in backgrounds of children deprived of liberty – Community Care