Issue 132 11.01.23
The weekly online newsletter for the care sector
Mixed reaction to extra £250m for social care A CARE campaigner has given a mixed reaction to news that the Government is to put £250million towards tackling the growing crisis in health and social care. Mike Padgham said every penny of funding to help the situation in social care was valuable but he was worried it was “too little, too late”. “This extra funding is very welcome and we hope that it will get to the frontline of social care very quickly to boost capacity in the social care sector and aid the speedy discharge of people in to the community,” he said. “My biggest regret is that it didn’t come sooner – we and others in the sector have been warning for months, if not years, that social care was in crisis and, particularly since the pandemic, struggling to survive. “An extra £250m, whilst welcome, is not going to touch the surface in terms of tackling the overall crisis. “And my major fear is that it will get bogged down in bureaucracy as the £500m to aid hospital discharge announced last September has become. “We urgently need the NHS to be given the go ahead to purchase care provision directly from care providers, which will speed up the process significantly.” He was concerned at reports that in some places health trusts might resort to using
hotels to provide care for people discharged from hospital. “I desperately hope that is not the case,” he added. “It would be setting an extremely dangerous precedent in discharging patients into places that have not had the rigorous inspection that properly-regulated, managed and staffed care and nursing homes have had. “Panic measures such as these suggest to me that the Government doesn’t have a properly thought out plan for tackling the crisis in care. “Those of us delivering care on the frontline know what needs to be done and have the expertise and knowledge to do it. “We are happy to discuss it with the Government if they will listen. “The Government’s announcement, whilst welcome, is another very small sticking plaster on the problem when what everyone really needs to see is a proper, sustainable root and branch reform of the social care sector. “We are seeing that the NHS is unsafe and that social care is broken. We cannot go on any longer. “We need urgent measures to tackle the 165,000 staff vacancies within the sector and then a longer-term strategy to create parity of pay and working conditions between NHS and social care staff.”
The opera has come to the state-of-the-art Belong Morris Feinmann care village in Didsbury, Manchester, with residents taking part in interactive performances delivered by students of the Royal Northern College of Music with SoundUp Arts, a community interest company which aims to improve the quality of life of people living with dementia through music. Residents at the specialist dementia care village have been enjoying weekly instalments of the RNCM’s current production of Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus involving multi-sensory audience participation, such as singalongs, dressing up, dancing and handling props and instruments.
Sybil ‘drops home’ for tea with hubby A DORSET care home resident enjoyed the simple pleasure of tea and biscuits back in the home she shared with her husband, thanks to her thoughtful carers. Sybil Fish, 86, a resident at Colten Care’s Whitecliffe House in Blandford Forum, was brought up in the village of Sturminster Marshall, near Blandford. She met and married her husband Ed at the age of 23 and the couple moved to neighbouring Charlton Marshall, where Ed still lives in their small bungalow. Sybil moved into Whitecliffe House three years ago. And Ed, who still drives, visits her several times a week. Colten companion Becky Wyeth said: “We regularly ask our residents for their ‘wishes’ and Sybil said she would simply
like to go back and visit Ed at home. “So, we checked their home for access to ensure the visit could go as smoothly as possible, arranged transportation and Sybil went home for tea and biscuits with Ed. “She had a fantastic time and was so happy.” Becky added: “Making our residents’ wishes come true is very important to us, whether they are as ambitious as riding on a motorbike, going up in a hot air balloon, or like Sybil’s, just simply spending time with a loved one in familiar surroundings. “Ed was also over the moon to have Sybil there enjoying tea and homemade cakes with him and both are still talking about it now.”
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