Care Funding - under the radar

Burying the bad news does seem to work, doesn't it? The underfunding is appalling, yet it will just go on - as long as people vote for it. How many will regret that - if/when they need support themselves?

When care homes were sold off to private companies seeking profit conditions for both staff and residents deteriorated. Part of my job was to visit care homes and there were many where the staff had a very poor standard of English which could make things awkward for both other staff and residents.
On the flip side the huge fees allowed an enviable standard of living for many of the owners. Expensive cars and houses, fancy holidays, were very much the norm.
The fees were/still are huge yet
Staff are still poorly paid and deserve more than minimum wage. We are supposedly a wealthy country yet can’t or this government won’t reward those who perform essential service with decent pay.

Social Care has clearly been shown to be unsuited to marketisation and should be returned to the public sector.

There is a very good paper on this by the Centre for Health and Public Interest. The failure of privatised adult social care in England: what is to be done?

If anyone can be bothered to read it it, it clearly states the problem with very good recommendations for improvement.

I don’t suppose government of whatever hue will be interested, sadly.

If some failed privatised services can be returned to the public sector, such as probation services, then I don’t see why they can’t, with the will to do so make a start by providing more public sector places for social care.

silverlining48

When care homes were sold off to private companies seeking profit conditions for both staff and residents deteriorated. Part of my job was to visit care homes and there were many where the staff had a very poor standard of English which could make things awkward for both other staff and residents.
On the flip side the huge fees allowed an enviable standard of living for many of the owners. Expensive cars and houses, fancy holidays, were very much the norm.
The fees were/still are huge yet
Staff are still poorly paid and deserve more than minimum wage. We are supposedly a wealthy country yet can’t or this government won’t reward those who perform essential service with decent pay.

I think it's pretty elementary.

A government that has a core ideology of libertarian free-market, small-state, economics, is not going to spend on public services. It's as simple as that.

The 'trick' of course is getting the electorate to believe that public spending is unaffordable. And that has been accomplished.

We are told that it is essential to reward the high achievers, the entrepreneurs, big business, large corporations, etc, because they will create the wealth that will then trickle-down to provide the essential public services.

Has it? Does it? Or is that wealth sucked out of the economy by those high-achievers who know how to avoid (not evade) paying tax?

Does the low-wage earner, who might be working (on a contractual basis) for these profitable companies, ever see the benefits of their labour in their life-time? Apart from the ever-loosening safety net that prevents them from hitting the ground with a hard bump?

How long can this model survive before the disengaged, disenfranchised, impoverished at the bottom of the pile revolt and upset the whole apple-cart? How wide does the wealth gap have to get before people say enough-is-enough?

My guess is that it won't happen. We will end up with a two-tier society - with a handful in the 'middle' - and become like those nations where the rich live lives of luxury and the poor scrape by as best they can.

Happygirl79

These u turns are often hidden from the public by releasing them at a time when something high profile is in the news. It's fully intended. People are looking elsewhere. Spin doctors have a lot to answer for. Shocking.

I was going to say - they choose a good day to bury bad news.

It hasnt been on the main news as far as I know so many people may not be aware.

Thank you •Casdon• for raising this. I noticed it, and thought of saying something here but didn't have all the facts and figures at my fingertips and let it pass. Don't feel proud of myself.

Alas the care sector lacks clout and is unable to make its impact. Unlike, say Extinction Rebellion or even the NHS. For many old people, just living from day to day is enough of a struggle let alone even voting.

The Tories shied away from implementing even the modest Dilnot report. They used care homes as a dumping ground for old people from hospitals without testing for Covid. They made the staffing problem worse by sacking all workers who resisted vaccination (then dropping the idea for the NHS).

They are not funding councils in a way that enables them to pay realistic costs for care beds and they have done nothing to discourage profit-making care homes from charging fees that are unrealistic.

There needs to be a minister for social care on parity with Jeremy Hunt and Gillian Keegan with junior ministers for adults and children. Or if these already exist they need to shout more likely, and both should be equally listened to.

Opposition parties in tory constituencies need to make much more of a song and dance about this in local as well as national elections.

You describe the problem perfectly Dickens and it’s ultimately thankless tinkering around the edges trying to improve an ideologically driven system. You only have to look to USA to see how marketisation in health care is failing so many of its citizens in one of the richest countries in the world.

Sadly a change of Government won’t fundamentally alter things.

I honestly don't know what the answer is; I have sat with people at lunch listening as they complain about the poor standards of care their spouse/parent is receiving, and know that yet again, these same people will vote Tory in the local and general elections, I know because they are all over our local councillor on FB 'Ooh, thank you xxxx, we are very grateful that you are getting our pot hole filled in, will certainly be voting for you in May'.....One WI lady was complaining about the cost of her husband's dementia care home and started off on the 'we are being punished because we worked hard, some people, especially immigrants, will get this for nothing'. I did say that the last time I looked, nobody was getting £1800 per week dementia care provided by the state, but her mind was made up. She blamed everyone and everything other than those at fault; the Tory administration, and her vote which enables them to do these things.

very, very depressing.

Public service of most kinds cost money and bring no profit so is of little interest to the conservative government, which is only concerned with the better off few and not the many.
The sorry fact is that so many of the many vote for them.

silverlining48

When care homes were sold off to private companies seeking profit conditions for both staff and residents deteriorated. Part of my job was to visit care homes and there were many where the staff had a very poor standard of English which could make things awkward for both other staff and residents.
On the flip side the huge fees allowed an enviable standard of living for many of the owners. Expensive cars and houses, fancy holidays, were very much the norm.
The fees were/still are huge yet
Staff are still poorly paid and deserve more than minimum wage. We are supposedly a wealthy country yet can’t or this government won’t reward those who perform essential service with decent pay.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

It goes beyond the Care Home scenario though ... those people who are receiving support/care at home are being asked to pay for it.

Many of the MOST disabled people in the UK are on what are called Legacy Benefits - these people, including myself, often didn't get the Cost of Living Payments to help out with heating etc, we just got £100. I for ne have had no heating at all over winter, and a paltry amount, just over £31 a week after paying my household bills.

THEN, we are asked to contribute to our care by the Local Authority - initially they wanted me to pay £200 a week for a daily 30 min strip wash from a bowl, and 4 hours a week help in the house. No mater how many income and expenditure sheets I sent in, showing that would leave me with a monthly deficit of £500, they ignored me, so I asked for a new financial assessment, where I was able to 'offset' my Disability Related Expenditure (anything that you have to pay for that an able bodied person would normally be able to do) and I got my contribution down to NIL

I am savvy enough to be able to do this - what about those that aren't?

Some 60,000 disabled people are currently being taken to court for non-payment of care charges! ANYONE on benefits just can't afford it, end of. In 2019, SCOPE did a report called The Disability Price Tag, where they found that on AVERAGE, a disabled person had to pay out £583 per month in order to be equal to an able bodied person.

People are going without the care and support they need because they can't afford it as it is.

Roll on April 2023 and we get a 10% uplift in benefits in order to pay for the increased cost of living - what are the LA's doing? Taking that uplift in care charges and upping peoples bills .... it's just not fair!

I am currently trying to get Dr Frances Ryan from The Guardian to do some digging on this and hopefully I will get it out there. I found someone on Twitter who had never even heard of 'Disability Related Expenditure', so the LA's aren't telling the most vulnerable in society that there is a bit of help that you can claw back some of the little money you get.

You may find this interesting reading. It's from Health and Social Care News from the National Pensioners Convention

There are articles on Social Care cuts, Commissioner for Older People, Ageing in England and Disappearing Dentists.

I found the article about Hull Hospital building a Care Facility very interesting. Is this the only way forward?

DaisyAnne

You may find this interesting reading. It's from Health and Social Care News from the National Pensioners Convention

There are articles on Social Care cuts, Commissioner for Older People, Ageing in England and Disappearing Dentists.

I found the article about Hull Hospital building a Care Facility very interesting. Is this the only way forward?

Thank you for that link *DaisyAnne, interesting stuff, but nothing will get better as the whole thing has been seriously underfunded. If anyone other than the Tories get in at the next election, all that will be left is a sinking hulk ....

The Hull hospital will be a good idea 'initially', but there will still be a blockage in that unit eventually because social care in the community is just not available sadly ....

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Reported

It's quite obvious the Tories will do nothing to fund social care properly. BoJo's 'fix' was simply news splashing. The underlying issues are that (1) social care is a private business aimed at profits which means delivering a minimum, and (2) those near the end of life are no longer needed by the capitalist funders of the Tory party and so can be scrapped. All those voting Tory should think carefully about how they will be treated by the present system when they need care.

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Reported

My son was out cycling the other day and he passed a care home in the next village. He said there were two Indian members of staff walking with a very elderly lady shuffling along. He said her coat was absolutely filthy with food all down the front and her hair looked like it had never been brushed. She just had an old pair of slippers on her feet despite it being a chilly day. He was shocked and went on about it all evening.
What a way to spend the last part of your life!!

How did he know the members of staff were Indian?

growstuff

How did he know the members of staff were Indian?

Indian or Pakistani then.

Primrose53

growstuff

How did he know the members of staff were Indian?

Indian or Pakistani then.

How about Bangladeshi or Filipino?

Playing devil’s advocate here but it’s possible the lady had wandered off from the care home in her slippers and fallen and the staff were walking her back. That could account for her soiled coat and dishevelled appearance.

Does it matter? She’s saying they were Asian! My mother always called the Asian staff at her care home ‘those Indians.’ And she said ‘a big black doctor’ about the the lovely GP who was called out to her. She was 94. Brought up in a different era. I never bothered to jump down her throat.