> Health ministers are to recruit a new volunteer army for social care to ferry medical equipment and drugs to people’s homes in a bid to free up congested hospital wards.
> Helen Wildbore, director of Care Rights UK, which represents relatives and residents, said it “feels like a desperate measure to try and save a system that is crumbling”.
> In contrast to the NHS budget, which the coalition government pledged to protect from real-terms reductions in funding, financial support to local authorities from the government has decreased by 40 per cent over the current Spending Review period…
> …local authority spending on social care for older people fell in real terms by 17 per cent; over the same period, the number of older people aged 85 and over rose by almost 9 per cent
To be fair, those corporate tax bills slashed in 2013 weren’t going to cut themselves you know. Had to get the money from somewhere.
Comes across as “we do not want to make social care a more viable option by increasing wages! Surely cannot be the poor wages leading to the shortage, could it?”.
Comes across as “we do not want to make social care a more viable option by increasing wages! Surely cannot be the poor wages leading to the shortage, could it?”.
Volunteering for something like this is papering over the cracks of the wilful neglect of social care services since this government came into office.
Those doing so may feel they are doing a good thing and for the end users, they are. So i don’t want to take that away from them as individuals who mean well.
But this should not be necessary, not be requested by the same government that has obliterated the workforce and held pay rates insultingly low.
This entire sector needs to be treated with far more respect by politicians and civic leaders – and that doesn’t mean lip service but investment, career progression, support for workers and a joined up approach to meeting peoples health and care needs.
What it doesn’t need is old Jean dropping off a few boxes of rubber gloves here and there.
Government who wants to “make work pay”, is really failing at that, with ideas like this.
That said I could see this being tied into something like Universal Credit, cos the Government is THAT out of touch with reality.
​
Create well paid jobs, and watch how fast the work gets done, and people get off of benefits.
I think that every Conservative MP should lead from the front on this and pledge 12 hours of unpaid work a week wiping the arses of the elderly. Make ’em do some honest work for those votes for once.
convalesce at home, They sent round Social Fucking Services.
There are over 100,000 vacancies in the social care sector. If those jobs paid well, offered flexible working patterns, and if the conditions were good then maybe people might want to fill those roles and we would not be desperate for a volunteer army.
BETTER IDEA
1. TAX RICH PEOPLE
2. PAY PEOPLE FOR THIS WELL NEEDED WORK
3.STOP PAYING SOCIAL CARE WORKERS JOKE WAGES
People already do
Several million unpaid carers in England and Wales alone
Many of which pulling hours which would be illegal in a work setting
Some juggling care responsibilities with their actual jobs
Not to mention, a detriment to their own health with each passing year
10 comments
> Health ministers are to recruit a new volunteer army for social care to ferry medical equipment and drugs to people’s homes in a bid to free up congested hospital wards.
> Helen Wildbore, director of Care Rights UK, which represents relatives and residents, said it “feels like a desperate measure to try and save a system that is crumbling”.
The reality is that social care funding has been [cut severely](https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/verdict/how-serious-are-pressures-social-care), resulting in ‘bed blocking’, resulting in huge pressure on the NHS
> In contrast to the NHS budget, which the coalition government pledged to protect from real-terms reductions in funding, financial support to local authorities from the government has decreased by 40 per cent over the current Spending Review period…
> …local authority spending on social care for older people fell in real terms by 17 per cent; over the same period, the number of older people aged 85 and over rose by almost 9 per cent
To be fair, those corporate tax bills slashed in 2013 weren’t going to cut themselves you know. Had to get the money from somewhere.
Comes across as “we do not want to make social care a more viable option by increasing wages! Surely cannot be the poor wages leading to the shortage, could it?”.
Comes across as “we do not want to make social care a more viable option by increasing wages! Surely cannot be the poor wages leading to the shortage, could it?”.
Volunteering for something like this is papering over the cracks of the wilful neglect of social care services since this government came into office.
Those doing so may feel they are doing a good thing and for the end users, they are. So i don’t want to take that away from them as individuals who mean well.
But this should not be necessary, not be requested by the same government that has obliterated the workforce and held pay rates insultingly low.
This entire sector needs to be treated with far more respect by politicians and civic leaders – and that doesn’t mean lip service but investment, career progression, support for workers and a joined up approach to meeting peoples health and care needs.
What it doesn’t need is old Jean dropping off a few boxes of rubber gloves here and there.
Government who wants to “make work pay”, is really failing at that, with ideas like this.
That said I could see this being tied into something like Universal Credit, cos the Government is THAT out of touch with reality.
​
Create well paid jobs, and watch how fast the work gets done, and people get off of benefits.
I think that every Conservative MP should lead from the front on this and pledge 12 hours of unpaid work a week wiping the arses of the elderly. Make ’em do some honest work for those votes for once.
convalesce at home, They sent round Social Fucking Services.
There are over 100,000 vacancies in the social care sector. If those jobs paid well, offered flexible working patterns, and if the conditions were good then maybe people might want to fill those roles and we would not be desperate for a volunteer army.
BETTER IDEA
1. TAX RICH PEOPLE
2. PAY PEOPLE FOR THIS WELL NEEDED WORK
3.STOP PAYING SOCIAL CARE WORKERS JOKE WAGES
People already do
Several million unpaid carers in England and Wales alone
Many of which pulling hours which would be illegal in a work setting
Some juggling care responsibilities with their actual jobs
Not to mention, a detriment to their own health with each passing year