Transparent and fair: what England can learn from Japan’s social care reform | Natasha Curry | Social Care Network | The Guardian

The long-awaited green paper on social care in England will finally be published this summer. But despite a royal commission, multiple independent reviews, and social care green and white papers over the last two decades, pledges to address problems in the system have become politically toxic and the issue has been repeatedly kicked into the long grass.

At the Nuffield Trust, we have been looking into Japan’s long-term care system to discover how the country managed to transition from a setup of highly variable and largely unaffordable care in the 1990s to a universal care system supporting nearly 6 million people. Although the context is different, Japan can teach us valuable lessons about implementing change with widespread public support.

 

Source: Transparent and fair: what England can learn from Japan’s social care reform | Natasha Curry | Social Care Network | The Guardian

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Now disabled people face a kind of internment. Just ask Edith | Frances Ryan | Opinion | The Guardian

In 24 hours’ time, Edith will no longer be able to get out of bed. The 30-year-old has multiple sclerosis, and relies on council-funded care assistants to help her live in her two-bed adapted flat in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

For 18 months, she has managed with only a couple of visits a day: one at 7am, to enable her to get up for work as a chartered accountant, and another at 8.30pm to help her get out of her wheelchair and back into bed. After years of saving hard for her first home and moving out of her parents’, it was meant to be the start of Edith’s life. But in February her care agency struck a blow: owing to staff shortages in her area, they would be ceasing their contract, and giving social services 90 days’ notice. Three months later, with barely a day until her carers leave, the council hasn’t found her a replacement.

Edith is terrified. “Carers helping me out of bed every morning are the fundamental life support which everything else in my life depends on,” she says. “And now it feels like the rug is being pulled out from beneath me.”

 

Source: Now disabled people face a kind of internment. Just ask Edith | Frances Ryan | Opinion | The Guardian

House of Lords report urges government for clarity on EU healthcare deal | Care Industry News

The House of Lords EU Committee has today published its report Brexit: reciprocal healthcare. The Committee warns that in the absence of an agreement on reciprocal healthcare, the rights of UK citizens to hold an EHIC card for treatment in the EU will cease after Brexit.

Other rights, provided for by the S2 scheme and Patients’ Rights Directive, will likewise come to an end. Without EHIC or an equivalent arrangement it could become much more expensive for UK citizens with chronic conditions – such as dialysis patients and people living with rare diseases – to travel to the EU post-Brexit, for holidays, recuperation or treatment. These people might find it difficult to obtain travel insurance at all.

The Government wishes to maintain reciprocal healthcare arrangements including the EHIC scheme after Brexit, but the current arrangements are designed to support the freedom of movement of EU citizens. The Government intends to stop freedom of movement to the UK, and has not yet set out its objectives for the future UK-EU relationship. The Committee therefore urges the Government to confirm how it will seek to protect reciprocal rights to healthcare of all UK and EU citizens post-Brexit, as part of any agreement on future relations.

The report also argues that it is essential for EU citizens lawfully resident in the UK to have a continuing right to access long-term healthcare, as well as the practical means by which to exercise that right. The Committee therefore calls on the Government to use domestic legislation to clarify the means by which all EU citizens lawfully resident in the UK at the time of Brexit will be able to continue to access essential healthcare.

 

Source: House of Lords report urges government for clarity on EU healthcare deal | Care Industry News

Tory Esther McVey just sneaked out a spectacular climbdown on housing benefit cuts

This is just a start as Social care throughout the UK is in an extensive crisis and all, some more than others, are in a dire need of extra finance just to tread water, let alone cater for the increase in needs relating to social care from an ever increasing amount of people both children and adults and their respective carers.

If the Care Industry is allowed to collapse, which it is now and in some instances beyond crisis point, then we will be back in Victorian Times, a time when many Tories regal at in their wish to return to ‘Victorian values’. Are these values we wish to return to, extensive child labour, lack of sanitation, workhouse, penalizing the poor, disabled and the sick.

Just a moment, we may already be there.

Govt Newspeak

The Tories performed a huge u-turn on the last day before Parliament breaks up for Easter.

Welfare secretary Esther McVey has scrapped rules introduced by George Osborne blocking 18-21 year olds from claiming housing benefit. When it was introduced, officials said the plan would stop them “slipping straight into a life on benefits”.

A benefit cut the Tories forced through despite huge protests is only hitting 30 people a month

They said it would hit 1,000 people in its first year and save taxpayers £105million by 2020. But the first official figures since the policy launched, released in January, show it denied benefits to just 90 people in the whole country in its first three months.

The number was so low because ministers drew up a huge list of exceptions to the cut to head off criticism from charities, campaigners and Labour. Today, the government finally caved in and announced the policy…

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Social care in ‘growing financial crisis’ as Sheffield Council bosses reveal massive £20m overspend : The Star

We are now about to start a new financial year and what is the state of Social Care, well for as I see it not much better, but is it even worse.

What has the council to say.

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Social care in Sheffield is in the middle of a ‘growing financial crisis’ as council bosses forecast a massive £20 million overspend.

Social care in Sheffield is in the middle of a ‘growing financial crisis’ as council bosses forecast a massive £20 million overspend.

 Source: Social care in ‘growing financial crisis’ as Sheffield Council bosses reveal massive £20m overspend : The Star

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How many Telfords before we get serious about child grooming? | The Guardian – Jess Phillips

Some time ago I was sitting in the Sunday school room of a local church, with posters made by kids depicting the teachings of Jesus curling at the corners on the walls. I was there to do my advice surgery in my role as a local councillor.

A man came in to ask for help getting his family moved to a bigger house. His daughter had two children who had been removed from her care but were allowed to live with her on condition that she live with her parents and they acted as guardians. I diligently took down the names and ages of the children to assess the size of house they needed.

 

Source: How many Telfords before we get serious about child grooming? | The Guardian – Jess Phillips

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Up to 1,000 children may have been victims in worst UK abuse ring

Dementia research must study care as well as cure : The Guardian

Social care faces an annual funding gap of £2.3bn by 2021 – by which time nearly a million people in the UK will be living with dementia. With no way to slow or stop the diseases that cause dementia, it is set to be the 21st century’s biggest killer.

While the NHS can’t offer people with dementia the same options as for other long-term conditions – because there is no cure or effective medical treatment – people with dementia must rely on the cash-starved and crumbling social care system. The social care and dementia crises go hand in hand.

Solving the care crisis goes beyond throwing money at the situation. Funding is desperately needed, of course, but we can’t simply pour more cash into a fundamentally flawed system. After decades of squeezed budgets and successive governments failing to put a long-term plan in place, we have a limited social care offering that too often leaves people with dementia footing the bill.

In the battle to meet rapidly rising demand with ever-shrinking resources, care providers must be as efficient and effective as possible. So why does investment in dementia research heavily focus on a cure for future generations, while less than 5% of funding goes to researching the best care possible for all those affected today?

The need for a cure for dementia is as pressing as ever, but we also need care research to develop practical solutions that can benefit people with the condition and their carers. Improving knowledge and practices among health and social care professionals, as well as the quality and inclusivity of the wider system, is just as important as developing medical treatments.

 

Source: Dementia research must study care as well as cure : The Guardian

The Big Care Survey

The Government announced last year that it will be looking at social care reform in 2018. As part of the process, they want to hear from care users and carers so that they get a picture of what the system is like today and what the people it impacts want to see changed.

We want to hear from as many people who have experience with adult social care in England to be able to tell them what it looks like now and what needs to change, so we’ve launched a survey.

We want to hear from you if you need social care or are a carer who cares for someone who needs social care. As a carer,

 

Source: The Big Care Survey

Hunger is just one symptom of deepening social care crisis-ADASS | Care Industry News

Responding to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger’s report on malnutrition in older people, Margaret Willcox, President of ADASS, said:

“The thought of older people going hungry because they are isolated, have limited mobility, or are depressed is appalling, and social care staff do what they do because they are keen to do anything within their power to help.

“Hunger is a serious issue for older people, but it’s often just one symptom of wider issues, which is why it is our view that social care solutions should be personalised, and focus on the individual needs of the person in question.

 

Source: Hunger is just one symptom of deepening social care crisis-ADASS | Care Industry News

NHS crisis should incentivise government to fully fund our social care system | Care Industry News

This year’s winter health crisis should incentivise government to fully fund our social care system, council leaders urged today.

The Local Government Association, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, said there cannot be a sustainable NHS without a sustainable social care system. Urgent new funding to address the annual social care funding gap, which will reach £2.3 billion by 2020, is needed to avoid an all-year round NHS crisis, it is warning today.

Council leaders say urgent action is needed to plug this social care funding gap to help alleviate the pressure on hospitals and avoid people being admitted to hospital in the first place. This will free up hospital beds and reduce pressures on the NHS.

Councils have also been working hard ahead of the winter to help reduce delayed transfers of care from hospital.

With the social care green paper not due until summer this year, the LGA is urging the Government to use the final Local Government Finance Settlement to find genuinely new money for social care. This will improve collaborative efforts to help prevent further crises in the NHS.

LGA Chairman Lord Porter said:

 

Source: NHS crisis should incentivise government to fully fund our social care system | Care Industry News