Writing in the Guardian, Sonia Sodha’s article outlines how the NHS and Social care need to be joined up to save both.
“The founding principles of the health service must be extended to social care. Otherwise, the NHS will be run into the ground”
“.. the NHS embodies not just the principle that the affluent pay more than the poor through their taxes, but that the sick don’t pay more than the healthy”
“.. while it may be alive and well in the NHS, it’s glaringly absent from social care. If you’re unlucky enough to get cancer, you are covered by the NHS. Get dementia, however, and those with modest assets are on their own until they have spent much of their savings; even then, cuts to local authority budgets, out of which social care is paid, mean it’s increasingly hard to get state help.”
“We shouldn’t be expecting baby boomers to meet costs individually, but asking more affluent retirees to pay for the social care system through progressive taxation”
A report from the Housing, Communities and Local Government and Health and Social Care Committees calls for a “social care premium” for England, to address social care costs which will soon become “unsustainable”.
A recent article in the Guardian outlines the social care funding crisis and how it is impacting on NHS resources.
“Almost 1.2 million people aged over 65 do not receive the support they need with essential daily tasks such as getting washed and dressed or preparing meals, according to Age UK. The perilous state of the domiciliary care sector, which provides support in people’s own homes, is one of the main reasons for this, the charity says.”
One of the major problems currently experienced by care agencies is highlighted in the article:
“Colin Angel, the UKHCA policy and campaigns director, says the £18 per hour is “based on the absolute minimum price, assuming you can recruit enough workers on the minimum or living wage. Typically we’re seeing wages that are often below local labour market expectations, which means you’ll have difficulty recruiting workers. You’ll find providers have less money left over for things like back-office staff”
Deckchair Care pay their carers 33% more than the minimum wage and guarantee contracted hours, yet recruiting excellent reliable carers is still a challenge – but something we do not compromise on.
The number of people working in care is not meeting the country’s growing care demands and unmet care needs are increasing, according to today’s report by the National Audit Office (NAO)
Care Worker Pay
“While many people working in care find it rewarding, there is widespread agreement that workers feel undervalued and there are limited opportunities for career progression, particularly compared with similar roles in health. In 2016-17, around half of care workers were paid £7.50 per hour or below (the National Living Wage was £7.20 in 2016-17), equivalent to £14,625 annually. This, along with tough working conditions and a poor image, prevents workers from joining and remaining in the sector.”
Homecare Workers
“There are around 1.34 million jobs in the adult social care sector in England, across more than 20,300 organisations1. The turnover rate of care staff has been increasing since 2012-13 and in 2016-17 reached 27.8%. The vacancy rate in 2016-17 for jobs across social care was 6.6%, which was well above the national average of 2.5%-2.7%.”
“However, demographic trends suggest that demand for care will continue to increase and people’s cares needs will continue to become more complex. To meet these challenges, the Department estimates that the workforce will need to grow by 2.6% every year until 2035.”
Better Rewards for Carers
Responding to the report, Debs Wilkinson of Home Care company Deckchair Care said “We are now starting to see the industry change to some of these recruitment challenges. Carers are doing some really important life-enhancing work and should be better rewarded and encouraged to stay in the industry.”
“Deckchair Care pay £10 per hour which would be a 33% pay rise for about half of the existing care workers. We also offer guaranteed hours, contracts, training, mileage allowance, holiday pay and pension contributions. Everything you would expect from every other industry in England.”
The government intends to publish a green paper on reforming care for older people by summer 2018.
Care Agency in Gatley, Cheadle
1There are around 1.34 million jobs in the adult social care sector in England. This excludes an estimated 145,000 jobs for personal assistants, employed by recipients of personal budgets and self-funders and 91,000 care jobs within the NHS.
