Failed on every level for too long
TREATED LIKE ‘EXPENDABLES’
TODAY charity boss MARK ADAMS gives a damning review of the Government’s handling of coronavirus in Britain’s care homes.
Mark is the CEO of Community Integrated Care, which has 4,500 employees in residential homes. He also sits on the board of the National Care Forum.
It’s hard to describe how surreal it is to be at the heart of a crisis and then turn on your TV to hear the assuring voices of government present a utopian picture to the nation.
The 5pm briefing has become a daily ritual for those in social care, as we watch in disbelief as our ministers make statements that would make Donald Trump blush.
Our jaws drop at their false promises and revisions of history, as they attempt to throw off public scrutiny with soundbites. And while this sideshow goes on, the people who face the consequences are the 1.6 million heroes working on the front lines in social care.
To be blunt, on every level, our political leaders have failed those who are the last line of defence for our most vulnerable.
This weekend, Matt Hancock described how a “protective ring was thrown around care homes”.
The list of supposed accomplishments was staggering – effective monitoring of Covid, excellent guidance, financial support for providers, comprehensive testing for staff and residents. Crisis? What crisis?!
The reality? The sector fought for care home deaths to be recognised. Providers like our charity are spending every penny to keep people safe but receiving little back – in our case £2.5million spend, with less than 10 per cent of that returned. We’ve bought 90 per cent of our PPE and face a persistent lack of testing. Guidance has been incomplete and contradictory. Many care homes have experienced a staggering lack of clinical support.
And let’s remember the care workers at the heart of this. For people with the exceptional empathy and talent to care to be the lowest earners in society is appalling. To have these individuals going into work, risking themselves with only basic sickness cover, is a national disgrace. This is a brutal reality of our funding.
These failures can be traced much further back than coronavirus.
One factor in this mess is that while the NHS is a central government responsibility, social care is a patchwork quilt overseen by 408 local authorities. A lack of hands-on connection means government thinking around social care is often tragically ill-informed. It creates the political wriggle-room for politicians to kick today’s problems into tomorrow.
For a sector that entered this crisis at breaking point, these problems cannot be ignored any longer.
It is time for central government to step up. It is our sector that enables people to live with dignity, offers comfort to families and keeps society going, so we cannot see it fail.
Matt Hancock needs to do more than wear a Care badge. We need action, not gestures.
This uncoordinated army needs a central body that drives innovation, standards and efficiency, working with regulators, providers and local authorities. One obvious start is to create the equivalent of NHS England to oversee, plan and budget for social care.
Local authorities cannot make ends meet after a decade of austerity. They are managing organisations as varied as national charities, large companies and small family businesses, all with different styles and standards. This mix of a fragmented market and lack of financial clout is a recipe for disaster.
Yes, we have regulators like QCC and the Care Inspectorate but they don’t set policy, funding levels or drive innovation. We need to fill this void.
This is a national problem that can only be fixed at a national level.
Our NHS was produced as the country recovered from the Second World War.
Could a silver lining of this crisis be a new chapter for social
care?