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This was a really excellent webinar, expertly chaired by our Community Care team leader, @JamieBurton29, with insightful and thought-provoking contributions from @socfuture's @neilmcrowther, @incontrolorg's @juestanny and Mitch Woolf of Scott Moncrieff solicitors. https://twitter.com/DoughtyStreet/status/1351439252958150659
I was too engrossed in the discussion to live-tweet but here are my main takeaways:
(1) The problems within the social care system are not just about money; they are also about attitudes towards people with care & support needs.
(1) The problems within the social care system are not just about money; they are also about attitudes towards people with care & support needs.
(2) The uncomfortable reality is that the structural and financial problems within the system are not just caused by Covid-19; they've been around for many years. People have not been getting the services they're entitled to for a very long time.
(3) Unlike the NHS, the majority of carers work for private companies or are self-employed. The challenges they face - low pay, unrealistic timescales within which to carry out their work, a lack of specialist training - mean that many good carers do not stay in the sector.
(4) The issues within the social care system are cross-generational: from young people with learning disabilities being placed in ATUs, to people being left without access to the community feeling isolated and lonely, to the elderly - many of whom have unmet care needs.
(5) There is a huge over-reliance on family members acting as informal carers - so much so that they often end up feeling "crushed" ( @neilmcrowther).
(6) We need to create a system whereby family members feel they have a genuine choice between professional care & providing informal care, and when they do provide informal care, they are properly rewarded for doing so.
(7) There is no quick-fix but as lawyers we must continue to hold local authorities and other public bodies to account through judicial review (a good example was the pre-action letters last year challenging implementation of Care Act 'easements' which led to them being dropped).
(8) A more joined up approach between health & social care is needed. Social services think they are saving money by not providing services but in so doing increase the likelihood of an individual ending up in the healthcare system & so cost the taxpayer more in the long run.
(9) Now is the time to generate public support for improving the social care system - capitalise on the fact that care homes are in the media; social care is something a lot of society is thinking about it when in the past it was ignored.
I'll end with @socfuture's vision for #socialcarefuture: is that so much to ask?
Find out more about their vision here: https://socialcarefuture.blog
Find out more about their vision here: https://socialcarefuture.blog
