Adult social care
What did we learn from discharging patients into care homes?
A consensus seemed to emerge that the rapid exporting of patients from hospitals without COVID testing was a mistake, says lead member for adult social care at Reading Council Cllr Tony Jones. He asks how we can do better as winter approaches.
Care directors warn of lockdown impact on homes
The Association of Directors of Adults Social Services (ADASS) has urged the Government to ensure families can visit care homes during the lockdown.
Seeing social care through a different lens
Social care is much more than elderly people and hospital discharges, says Cllr David Fothergill. Many people are working-age adults with severe learning disabilities, and the Government needs to widen its scope of what care encompasses.
Don't let the NHS follow care into crisis, warns Hopson
The Government has driven social care into crisis by failing to fund it properly, and the NHS must not face the same fate, health expert Chris Hopson has said.
Compassion, care and reconstruction
Now is the time to focus on vision, strategy, and creating a purposeful and inspiring future for social care, ‘while caring for our staff who have been through so much’, say Benjamin Taylor and Kim Curry.
Data to face the dangers ahead
To avoid making the same mistakes in adult social care, we need to use data intelligently to plan for further waves of COVID-19, say Naheed Chaudhry and Ewan King.
It’s time for Government to level up
There's still time to avoid levelling up becoming Boris Johnson’s Big Society, writes Sir Bob Kerslake - and two papers from the LGA and UK 2070 should be warmly welcomed by the Government as valuable contributions to their goal to build back better.
Central government needs to stand back
Dr Jonathan Carr-West asks if anyone has any sense of a sustained strategic focus on tackling the pandemic from government, and he feels only local government can manage the alignment of social, environmental and economic recovery that we need.
Future Forum: Raising public awareness of social care is critical
Raising public awareness of the importance of social care is a crucial next step to delivering longer-term reform and redefinition of the system, say sector experts.
Streamline PPE funding for the sake of social care
COVID-19 will continue to severely stretch the financial resilience of providers like Leonard Cheshire and funding must be urgently refreshed and streamlined, says Hugh Fenn.
Occupancy rates unsustainable in 26 Bradford care homes, says care chief
Occupancy rates are unsustainable in 26 care homes in Bradford, with people ‘genuinely worried’ about the risk of further virus outbreaks, says the council’s social care chief.
People matter more than places
Until we stop obsessing about the process of place and begin to reconnect meaningfully with people where they live, we won’t change anything, says Donna Hall.
Wolverhampton imposes care home visit restrictions
The council has banned non-essential indoor care home visits following a rise in COVID-19 cases.
Hancock under pressure on anti-obesity plans following PHE closure
Health secretary Matt Hancock is under growing pressure today to say who will take responsibility for the national fight against obesity following his decision to close down Public Health England (PHE).
COVID-19: A perfect storm for technology innovation in social care?
Carers must be enabled to remain in the profession for longer, say Graham Allen and Steve Carefull, and early indications from Hampshire suggest ‘cobots’ may be one way this can be achieved.
The very big and the very small
Chief executive of Shared Lives Plus Alex Fox outlines three ways we might move from thinking big to thinking small as the crisis moves into its ‘new normal’ phase.
NHS to fund six weeks of care to support people at home
The NHS is to use part of its £3bn winter pressures cash to support people at home for a six-week recovery and rehabilitation period, it has emerged.
It takes two
A £3bn winter funding boost for the NHS has highlighted a lack of focus on an adult social care sector that's been under pressure long before the COVID pandemic. Ann McGauran looks at the growing need for a joined up approach.
Social care workers should be clapped, not slapped by visa rules
Heather Jameson says that with home secretary Priti Patel’s plan for post-Brexit immigration rules released this week, the Government is playing to its core audience – and abandoning care workers in the process.
The right time for some strategic thinking
The pandemic has presented an opportunity for the sector to re-think its recruitment strategies, particularly in the search for experienced social workers. Maggie Hennessy and Sonia Tanda explain.
