adult social care – Page 2

Blog: Matt Hancock made for grim listening at the COVID Inquiry

Matt Hancock, the man responsible for the health and care of the nation during the deadliest emergency for a century, finally gave his evidence to the COVID Inquiry this week. And it was just as grim as I’d expected.

He talked about social care like it was something he found down the back of his sofa, rather than a vital public service he was responsible for. At one point, he said: “We at the health department” – once again forgetting about social care.

He admitted he didn’t know how many care homes there were in the country when COVID hit, or how many care home residents lived in them. So how could he possibly have known where to throw that ‘protective ring’ he boasted about?

The care sector had been in crisis long before the pandemic – a crisis presided over by years of Tory mismanagement and failed political choices. This left the sector exposed to the ravages of the pandemic, right from the start.

Mr Hancock failed in his responsibility to provide enough PPE, testing and paid leave for care workers who needed to self-isolate. He was warned by UNISON, repeatedly, about the need for sick pay and yet he failed to act decisively.

When the government belatedly brought in an “infection control fund” to provide money for sick pay, UNISON care worker members told us the system didn’t work, with many still left without adequate pay.

It’s also telling how he relied so heavily on his lack of direct control over social care as an excuse for these failings, but when he saw the vaccination programme giving the Tories a boost in the polls, he had no problem introducing the ill-advised “mandatory vaccination” in care homes, which ironically undermined the roll-out.

He found the levers to make vaccination mandatory for care workers, but not sick pay.

Even now, when the time is right for self-reflection and taking responsibility, he is dodging it and passing the buck.

There are lessons to be learnt from the inquiry. A big one is about the urgent need to fix the social care crisis. A nationally integrated, fully funded system, delivered by empowered local councils, would have ensured a secretary of state for health and social care took responsibility for the whole job. It could have saved lives, and the UK could have avoided one of the worst death rates in Europe.

UNISON’s campaign for a National Care Service got a big boost from the Fabian Society report a few weeks ago and 16,000 people have already signed our recently launched petition. If Matt Hancock showed us this week how care was so easily forgotten by Tory ministers, you can show how important it is to you, by signing our petition today.

The article Blog: Matt Hancock made for grim listening at the COVID Inquiry first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Blog: Matt Hancock made for grim listening at the COVID Inquiry

He found the levers to make vaccination mandatory for care workers, but not sick pay.

Even now, when the time is right for self-reflection and taking responsibility, he is dodging it and passing the buck.

The article Blog: Matt Hancock made for grim listening at the COVID Inquiry first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Majority of homecare staff are unpaid for travel between visits

Three quarters (75%) of care staff who look after people at home are not being paid for the time it takes them to travel between appointments, says UNISON today (Thursday).

The union says the finding, from a survey of more than 300 domiciliary care workers across England, reveals employers are effectively breaking minimum wage laws.

As a result, staff are hundreds of pounds short each month. This is money they can little afford to lose from their already rock-bottom wages and is rightfully theirs, says UNISON.

Homecare workers spend almost a fifth (19%) of their working day travelling between people’s homes*. UNISON says most are paid at or just above the minimum wage, but this hourly amount is dramatically reduced if their employer does not pay travel time.

UNISON is calling for travel time payment to become a contractual requirement. The union also wants employers to provide proper evidence for their employees, such as putting details of the reimbursement on pay slips.

One care worker said they had done a 12-hour day including time travelling between appointments, but their employer only paid them for 9 hours. Another in a rural area said they had to drive for at least 20 minutes between each care visit.

The impact on care staff denied this money is considerable, says UNISON. Some say they cannot afford to cover bills, are taking anti-depressants for stress and feel totally demoralised.

The union says vacancy levels across care – currently 165,000 – will simply increase unless ministers act now to eradicate the widespread practice of not paying travel time. Many who took part in the survey said they are looking for work in other sectors where they’d be paid for all the hours they spend at work.

Recommendations from the Low Pay Commission and the Director of Labour Market Enforcement to improve the situation have been ignored by ministers, says the union.

Instead, the government expects individual care workers – often on zero-hours contracts – to tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) if they believe they‘re not being paid properly.

However, just 18% of workers in the survey were provided with pay slips accurately detailing their time spent travelling and what, if anything, they had been paid for this.

In the past 10 years, no care employer has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service for failing to keep sufficient minimum wage records, according to HMRC data given to UNISON.

UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea said: “Both care staff and those they look after are the victims of this pay scandal. Vulnerable people suffer when their already rationed care visits are cut short or delayed.

“UNISON has been highlighting this exploitation for over a decade. Yet the government has responded with inaction and indifference.

“These appalling working practices must be tackled urgently if more people are to be encouraged to work in a sector desperately short of staff. Disabled and elderly people receiving care support will want an end to the exploitation of those looking after them. When it does, everyone will benefit.”

Notes to editors:
–*Based on data from the UK Homecare Association, which represents care providers.
– A total of 310 homecare workers took part in the survey, conducted online in February.
– A worker on the national living wage rate of £10.42, who works a shift lasting eight hours but loses a fifth of that in unpaid travel, would lose roughly £83 during a five-day week, and more than £330 in a month.
– Case studies (names have been changed):
Louise who works in the East of England says: “No travel time pay puts immense pressure on me. I work in a rural area and often there’s a 20-minute or more drive between house calls, which isn’t taken into account. There’s constant pressure from the office and the people I support because I’m running late.”
Sam, who works in the South West, says: “I’m sometimes out from 6.20am until 9.45pm without enough of a break to go home. It’s a long day, very tiring and sometimes stressful. I have no quality time with my partner – it’s draining.”
Sandra who works in Yorkshire says: “I’m only paid for the time spent in someone’s home. I’m out working eight hours minimum but get paid for six This dramatically reduces my hourly wage. I’ve thought long and hard about going into a different sector to get a fairer wage.”
– Today is the third day of UNISON’s annual conference, which this year is in Liverpool. The event runs until Friday. Further details about the four-day event can be found here.
– UNISON is the UK’s largest union and the largest union in the NHS and in the ambulance sector, with more than 1.3 million members providing public services – in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy. They are employed in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

Media contacts:
Anthony Barnes M: 07834 864794 E: a.barnes@unison.co.uk
Fatima Ayad M: 07508 080383 E: f.ayad@unison.co.uk

The article Majority of homecare staff are unpaid for travel between visits first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Support Guaranteed: The roadmap to a national care service

UNISON joined the Fabian Society to launch the first ever roadmap to a national care service at an event in Westminster late last week.

The event marked the launch of Support Guaranteed, a report commissioned by UNISON but produced independently by the society.

Introducing the report, co-author and general secretary of the Fabian Society Andrew Harrop said: “The backdrop of the project is an adult social care system on its knees. Since 2010, spending on adult care has fallen hugely, relative to levels of need, and poor pay and conditions have helped trigger a staffing crisis in the sector with 165,000 vacancies.

“But extra spending will not be enough to address these problems on its own. Money must come with reform.”

He moved on to summarise the five key themes of the report with his co-author, Ben Cooper:

a fair workforce settlement – the most pressing of the issues as, without a new deal for care workers, the system will not be able to recruit and retain the people required;
building a service for everyone – support would be available to anyone needing help, regardless of means;
a system with stronger rights and entitlements – people will have control and choice over the support they get;
making adult social care a comprehensive service – end the postcode lottery in support and provision and create a care service with government, councils and licensed care providers united in a shared purpose; and
see it become more affordable over time – at a time when public finances are tight, it is crucial to help those who are missing out on support to access what they need, as well as making it more affordable.

Ben Cooper outlining the themes of the report

Mr Cooper continued: “What Andy and I have outlined today is a substantial package of reform that would take at least 10 years to realise.

“The national care service is a shared national endeavour to give every individual the right support in the right way at the right time to live well and independently. It would be transformative to the lives of hundreds of thousands of disabled people, older people and carers.

“I know this because – as someone who will draw on social care in the future, either in the next few years or the next few decades – the idea of a national care service gives me confidence and security. Confidence that whenever that day comes, it will not be a moment of fear.

“Just as the past generation built the NHS for the 20^th century, we can build an NCS for the 21^st.”

Mr Cooper and Mr Harrop were joined by UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea and shadow health and social care minister Wes Streeting MP in a panel moderated by Dr Anna Dixon.

Wes Streeting outlining Labour’s policy around adult social care

Mr Streeting spoke about Labour’s commitment to reform in the care sector. He started by telling the audience: “I’ve reached the stage of life where social care has become personal rather than just political.

“But as soon as any of us have to rely on the social care system, it becomes clear it’s not an adequate safety net. ‘Cradle to grave’ increasingly feels like a dream that has not been achieved.

“And if there was one moment that put to bed, forever, the Conservative’s claim to be the party on the side of working people, it’s surely this: carers told to isolate without sick pay in the middle of a global pandemic. No one should be forced to choose between going to work to feed your family, or isolating at home to protect public health.

“People who receive and deliver care have been let down time and again by broken Tory promises. I’m not going to repeat their mistakes. There will be no well-meaning, wishful thinking before an election, only to see promises broken by contact with the hard realities of government.

“Instead, we’ll be honest with ourselves, with you and with the country about what we can actually deliver in the first term of a Labour government. And that’s why this report is so important, it gives us a lot to think about and reflect on as we think about Labour’s next manifesto and our longer-term ambitions.”

Christina McAnea speaking at the launch of support guarenteed

Christina McAnea addresses UNISON’s priorities in adult social care

After the shadow minister spoke, Christina McAnea also gave her thoughts on the report: “This report is extremely comprehensive and I believe it strikes just the right balance of being sufficiently ambitious, given the state of the care sector at the moment, but also providing a practical, realistic roadmap for overhaul and renewal.

“It is the first time we’ve had a detailed plan about how a government could go about achieving this. And the hope is that it will provide a really important contribution to the wider social care debate and specifically to the development of a national care service.

“Change is required more desperately than ever. But it must be the right change, because it’s too important to get wrong. You can’t just continue to throw money at an unreformed system because too much of it fails to reach the services and the people who need it.

“We also need to change the narrative around social care, it is not a drain on our economy, it is a driver of our economy. It is an essential part of the infrastructure that keeps the economy ticking, just as people need trains to run and roads to drive on. We need a care service.

“It does genuinely feel to me, and I hope to you all too, that this generation of politicians and policy makers have an opportunity to make that once in a lifetime shift. To make history when it comes to a national care service.

“We should be bold, we should be ambitious and we should end that sticking plaster approach to social care and actually go for some radical surgery.”

After the speeches, the panel fielded questions from attendees, including care workers, key industry stakeholders and journalists, on a range of topics including:

professionalisation of care work;
gender equality in the workforce;
the proposed role of local authorities in a national care service; and
how the NHS and a national care service would work in tandem.

One UNISON care worker who attended the event said: “Hopefully, going forward, things are going to change and improve for everyone in the care sector – today has been a really positive event. It’s going to take a while, and maybe in my life I might not see every change I’d like to see, but you’ve got to start somewhere.”

L-R Dr Anna Dixon, Christina McAnea, Ben Cooper and Andrew Harrop

Christina McAnea (centre) with 5 UNISON care workers from the North West and Gavin Williams (right)

Christina McAnea (centre) with five UNISON care workers from the North West and UNISON national officer Gavin Edwards (right)

Christina McAnea talks to one of the attendees of the support guaranteed launch event

The article Support Guaranteed: The roadmap to a national care service first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Blog: Launching UNISON’s campaign for a National Care Service

It’s clear to everyone that social care is broken. During the pandemic, this crucial public service was left exposed to the ravages of COVID-19. Care workers forced to work without PPE, no sick pay for self-isolation and older and disabled patients discharged from hospitals into care homes while COVID-positive. It led to a national tragedy and the scale of loss was among the worse in Europe.

But the problems in social care didn’t start when COVID-19 arrived. For decades, governments have tried to run our social care system as a privatised bargain basement service, where care workers are left unsupported and care recipients routinely let down.

Most social care in England is commissioned by local government and delivered by private and independent companies. The system has been run down by a combination of funding cuts to councils and profit extraction by some providers. National standards are not properly enforced and care workers routinely face poverty wages and even outright exploitation.

Pay for care workers is at rock-bottom minimum wage rates, even though it’s a difficult, skilled job that requires them to take on huge responsibilities. Some receive even less, because they are not paid adequately for travel time or overnight sleep-in shifts. Is it any wonder there are 165,000 vacancies in the sector? By far the highest rate of unfilled posts for any sector of the economy.

Despite the Westminster government’s claim it would “fix” social care, it doesn’t have the solutions, or the genuine political will, to deliver the service that’s needed.

And if we needed any reminding of how the current government disregards the care sector and its workforce, we got news yesterday that they are planning to half the investment in the social care workforce which they announced in 2021. Social care now needs to moved to the front of the queue, not shifted to the back.

It’s time for change. Social care should become part of a nationally recognised institution, as respected as the NHS. It should not be run for profit, but to provide world-class, high quality social care for those who need it. Older people, disabled people and those in need of reablement services deserve to have their needs put first, not those of shareholders.

UNISON is the largest union in the care sector, and we have a responsibility to push for this progressive and radical change. That’s why over the next 18 months and beyond, UNISON will be intensifying our campaign for England to have a National Care Service.

We want to see a National Care Service that:

gives access to quality care for all who need it;
is focussed on providing world-class social care, not delivering profits for shareholders;
has national pay, terms and conditions for all care workers and a proper workforce plan;
has the long-term and adequate funding for a high-quality care service;
includes an emergency pay boost for all care workers, helping to end the staffing crisis.

Social care is a devolved policy area. Reform, and moves towards a National Care Service model, are at different stages in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. UNISON is campaigning hard for root and branch reform in all nations of the UK. So, although this campaign is focussed on England, we are on the front foot on this issue across the UK.

Over the coming months there will be lots of ways for UNISON members working in social care to get involved in the campaign and push for the change we all so desperately want to see.

We have listened to our members and heard the voices of all those who rely on social care. Make no mistake, we will do everything in our power to make this happen.

Find out more about the campaign here

The article Blog: Launching UNISON’s campaign for a National Care Service first appeared on the UNISON National site.