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A critical moment: NHS staffing, trends, retention and attrition |
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Our third annual NHS workforce report, published today, highlights that staff numbers are failing to keep pace with demand. There is ongoing deterioration in critical areas such as general practice, community care, nursing and mental health. |
Source: New report: NHS staff shortages put long-term vision for primary and community care at risk : The Health Foundation
Community Care is seeking feedback from social workers about support for people who need help accessing facilities in their local community and maintaining relationships.
The survey asks social workers questions about support for people whose needs mean they are unable to achieve outcomes (g) and (i) from the Care Act 2014 eligibility criteria:
(g) – developing and maintaining family and other personal relationships.
(i) – making use of necessary facilities or services in the local community including public transport, and recreational facilities or services.
The survey will take around 10 minutes to complete and all responses will remain anonymous. You can take the survey here.
Source: Adults’ social workers: take our survey on care package cuts : Community Care
Original post from Community Care
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Local authorities have set up online e-markets to meet key duties under the Care Act but their potential to deliver choice to care users could be undermined by risk aversion from frontline staff and management, according to a report.
Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) think-tank found that around a quarter of councils now allow self-funding adult social care users and personal budget holders to search for and purchase care services via ‘Amazon-style’ e-markets. Many had set up the sites to meet their responsibility to provide universal information and guidance under the Care Act 2014, the IPPR said.
The IPPR identified three main benefits to the e-market systems: they improved access to the market for new and small providers, provided more opportunities for user-commissioning by allowing people to describe the service they want and providers to respond with a tailored service and price, and helped integrate networks of formal and informal care.
However, the report also identified a number of issues with implementation of the platforms. Too many local authorities viewed them as cost-saving tools rather than a chance to transform care. A culture of risk aversion among local authorities and frontline staff often stifled new providers from entering the markets and led to professionals and brokers directing people to services they had always used.
“Action is required in a number of areas if the genuine choice that e-marketplaces promise is to be delivered. First, those who help users to select products and services need to become confident in helping those users find the services that are right for them, rather than simply directing those users to the services that the broker or social worker has always used,” the report said.
“Many of the most innovative providers are non-traditional, and substantial offline work and cultural change among staff may be required to ensure a diverse supply rather than a replication of the existing market. Carers, paid brokers, frontline social workers and charities with advisory functions all assist users in making choices, and they are key to this process.”
The culture of excessive caution must be tackled by ensuring that risk is shared appropriately and frontline staff are given the attention and permission they need to focus on outcomes rather than being “cowed by concerns about compliance and liability”, the report said.
The report pointed to Worcestershire county council as a good example of a local authority supporting its social workers to utilise the new system. The council held networking events for social workers to meet local care providers and discuss the e-marketplace.
The e-marketplace model is just one example of how local authorities are looking to use technology to meet their Care Act duties. The most recent Care Act stocktake by the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) found that 147 of 152 local authorities planned to introduce an element of online self-service for care ranging from e-marketplaces to web-based assessments.
Richard Pantlin, the Adass technology and informatics lead, said directors were keen to promote online options for individuals and carers who were “happy and capable to use it”.
“Hard-pressed people in their 40′s, 50′s and 60′s who are the main informal carers for their elderly parents will find such resources particularly helpful. Many more are likely to be contacting councils as a result of the cap on care costs being introduced from next April,” he said.
“During this year, Adass is organising workshops in each of the regions to encourage more co-operation across councils and to share best practice for engaging citizens online for the Care Act. Many councils have already implemented good Information & Advice portals that direct users according to their needs.
“Some, such as Oxfordshire, have enabled carers to complete their own assessments online. Others are planning online financial self-assessment. There are also an increasing number of apps independently available to people in need of support and their carers to assist them.”
Adass is holding a ‘Care apps showcase’ on 19 October in Leeds.
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Original post from Community Care
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Government-commissioned curriculum guide and capability statements provide guidance for practitioners and managers on implementing act
The College of Social Workers (TCSW) has today set out expectations for practitioners in delivering on the Care Act 2014 reforms in two government-commissioned resources.
Its curriculum guide on the act outlines the knowledge and skills that social workers need to develop to effectively implement the act in areas including assessment and eligibility, safeguarding and risk, integration and transitions. It is designed to support practitioners in their professional development and employers and educators to provide effective training and learning.
Alongside this, TCSW has produced a set of capability statements, setting out expectations of social workers of different levels of experience or seniority for delivering on the Care Act. These are based on the nine domains of the College’s professional capabilities framework.
What social workers should know
Among the knowledge and skills expected of social workers set out in the curriculum guide are:
Capabilities
The capability statements for social workers (those in the early years of their career) include to:-
In a piece for Community Care to accompany the launch of the resources, the chair of TCSW’s adults’ faculty, Gerry Nosowska, said: “The Care Act enshrines a standard of care and support that I believe social workers can wholeheartedly support. We can lead, model and deliver the kind of practice that makes the Care Act meaningful. We also need the time, resource and understanding to fulfil its promise. This is ultimately down to the kind of society people want to live in, and the kind of support we want for ourselves and our families. If we want the Care Act to work, as a society we need to invest in social care.”
The curriculum guide was developed for the College by Manchester Metropolitan University and Research in Practice for Adults, while the statements were drawn up following workshops with practitioners, managers and workforce leads. …… ‘
Care Act 2014 post from Community Care
The Care Act 2014 modernises and consolidates the law on adult care in England into one statute and has been described as the biggest change to the law in 60 years. Key changes include the introduction of national eligibility criteria, a right to independent advocacy and, from 2016, a cap on care costs faced by self-funders. This page contains the latest news on the act and its implementation. Community Care Inform Adults subscribers can also benefit from practice advice on the legislation on our dedicated resource page for the act.
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Original post from The Guardian
An extract
‘………..I want to begin with Graham, a friend of mine, and his wife Maureen. Married for just over 50 years, Maureen was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and attendant dementia in 2010. Graham is blind, and Maureen was admitted to a care home in 2013 because they could no longer manage together at home.
Graham says it’s a welcoming environment and the care workers are lovely people, but if Graham isn’t there (he visits her every day) she will spend all her time in bed. There isn’t an appropriate room for her to sit in and if she sits in a chair in her own room, there has to be a member of staff to supervise her – and there is never one to spare. Maureen can no longer express her own feelings, but Graham says she seems to enjoy sitting down. Staying in bed raises respiratory issues which seem to distress her. She simply weeps, he says.
Ever since the Sutherland Commission on long term care reported in 1999, and its initial recommendation for free social care was rejected, the response of the three main traditional political parties has consistently been that we could not afford to put social care on the same footing as the NHS and make it a universal service free at the point of delivery funded by general taxation. This, the argument goes, would just be too expensive.
The question is this: why do we think of looking after people as a financial burden? What underpins this way of thinking, that it is a matter of money out rather than money in? Why is it thought that helping to support children facing difficulties, disabled people and older members of our community is a negative rather than a positive?……………….’
Original post from Local Government Association
An extract
‘…….Social care funding must be protected in the same way that it is for the NHS in the next Budget or another crisis such as the one seen this winter will be unavoidable, local government leaders are warning today.
The Local Government Association (LGA) is calling on the Chancellor to use next month’s Budget to protect public services in England with adequate funding to ensure councils can provide services locally. In particular, the Chancellor is being urged to protect social care funding to enable councils to support the NHS and prepare for reforms starting as soon as this April.
Without adequate funding, elderly and disabled people could be left without the social care services which help them to remain independent, and stay out of hospital and in their own homes for longer. Instead, thousands could see their elderly relatives, neighbours and friends risk being left without the care they need to live independently as well as simple every day support such as washing, dressing and meals on wheels. ………………..’
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