Scottish Care believes that many of the proposals in the current White Paper on Immigration are wholly inadequate in addressing the needs of the social care sector in Scotland.
Scottish Care published research in late December 2018 illustrating the considerable recruitment and retention challenges facing the care home sector.
It stated that:
Full report – https://www.scottishcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Care-Home-Workforce-Data-Report-2018.pdf
Dr Donald Macaskill, the CEO of Scottish Care said ahead of giving evidence at the Scottish Affairs Committee:
“The social care sector in Scotland is significantly dependent upon the skills and talents of our migrant colleagues. Over the years they have enriched the care which lies at the heart of our care homes and home care services across Scotland. We are very concerned that the uncertainty around Brexit is creating turmoil in their lives and in the lives of already vulnerable individuals.
“The White Paper on Immigration does little to offer social care providers the sense of reassurance they require after Brexit. We estimate that under the new regime envisaged in the proposals that as many as 85% of the current migrant workforce would not be able to come to the country.
“We see the White Paper on immigration to be a huge missed opportunity. Scotland needs to continue to attract the best from across the world and the failure to identify social care as a priority sector is very disappointing. This is compounded by describing social care as ‘low-skilled’ which fails to acknowledge the sector as requiring high levels of skill and qualifications.
“Further, the salary requirements in the proposals fail to take account of the real world of social care in Scotland. The envisaged threshold of £30,000 is set at a rate which fails to acknowledge that the average salary in social care is £18,000.
“Scottish Care is calling for a flexible, realistic, person-centred model of immigration that looks at the needs of the receiving communities which in Scotland’s case shows that social care is urgently in need of migrant skills and abilities.”
In 2017, Scottish Care launched this lovely film – created by Michael Rea – showcasing what good care means from the perspective of those working in and being supported by services who were finalists in Scottish Care’s Care at Home & Housing Support Awards.
The Awards are a fantastic opportunity to highlight all that is fantastic about the support provided through care at home and housing support services – even though most people think they are just doing their job!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to celebrate your colleague, service or client by submitting a nomination in the 2019 Awards. As a sector, we need to get better at showing people what good care really means and the difference it makes.
Nominations are open until the end of February. Find out more here: https://www.scottishcare.org/care-at-home-housing-support-awards-2019/
The Scottish Government has issued a 2019/20 advance notice on changes to care home charges regarding:
These figures will be in place from April 2019.
To see full details of the advance notice, click here.
Since 2016, work has been underway across Scotland to integrate health and social care services in line with the requirements of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014.
Evidence is emerging of good progress in local systems which has also meant that independent sector providers have been more involved and engaged. However this has been patchy at best.
The pace and effectiveness of integration need to increase. At a health debate in the Scottish Parliament on 2 May 2018, the then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport undertook that a review of progress by Integration Authorities would be taken forward with – the Ministerial Strategic Group for Health and Community Care.
Scottish Care has been pleased to be involved in this review of Health and Social Care Integration by having membership of the group through our CEO Dr Donald Macaskill.
The purpose of this review is to help ensure we increase our pace in delivering all of the objectives at the heart of integration.
A report has been published which draws together the group’s proposals for ensuring the success of integration.
https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0054/00545762.pdf
Commenting on the publication Dr Macaskill stated:
“The success of integration is central to achieving positive outcomes for those who use both health and social care services. I am pleased that the independent care sector has been recognised as a critical player in achieving this success.
Care home, care at home and housing support providers from the independent sector will continue to engage constructively and to work collaboratively with our statutory partners to achieve the real change we all want to see happen.”
Many of you will already have been contacted by the SSSC about the changes and improvements which will be taking place in MySSSC in February. Please see below a brief Employer Guide which will give you an outline of some of the most significant changes.
Please note that while the system is being upgraded, there will be no employer or registrant access to MySSSC from Thursday 7th February until Monday 11th February.
More information will be shared by the SSSC over the coming weeks but if you have any questions about these changes please contact the Registration Team at the SSSC.
EmployersguidetoMySSSC
It was encouraging to read over the weekend research which had been undertaken by Ipsos Mori. It was the latest ‘Ipsos Mori Issues Index – 2018 in review’, which gives a “snapshot” of the top ten major concerns across individual parts of the country. Brexit and its implications was not surprisingly revealed as the most important issue facing Britain, topping the list. However, what it also showed was that Scots worried about the ageing population and social care much more compared to concerns over immigration and crime than the rest of Britain. 16 per cent of people were concerned about social care compared with 11 per cent for the rest of the country. This is at least encouraging considering that ‘Scotland’s population is ageing at a faster rate compared with the rest of the UK, while the population is growing at a slower rate and fertility, life expectancy at birth and net in-migration are all lower.’ When I read the report I was encouraged by the prominence not least because the social care sector as well as facing huge demands in terms of capacity is eagerly awaiting a Scottish Budget that prioritises it rather than provides leftover crumbs from other fiscal concerns. But when people talk about social care what do they really mean? Indeed I am reminded of a senior public official who recently confessed that it isn’t at all clear what social care is and what it’s distinctive role is. There are many definitions, both legal and aspirational, as to what social care is and what it is not. For instance social care whilst it may contain services which are clinical or medical in nature is not primarily about one’s physiological health. For me the role of social care is:
‘The enabling of those who require support or care to achieve their full citizenship. The fostering of contribution, the achievement of potential and the nurturing of belonging.’
That may all sound a bit nebulous but in essence social care is about enabling the fullness of life for every citizen who needs support whether on the grounds of age, disability, infirmity or health. Social care is holistic in that it seeks to support the whole person and it is about attending to the individual’s wellbeing. It is about removing the barriers that limit and hold back and fostering conditions so that individuality can grow and an individual can flourish. Social care is not about performing certain functions and tasks alone for it is primarily about relationship; the being with another that fosters individual growth, restoration and personal discovery. It is about enabling independence and reducing control, encouraging self-assurance and removing restriction, maximising choice and building community. Therefore as many of us have sought to illustrate over the last few years, social care is profoundly about human rights. It is about giving the citizen control and choice, voice and agency, decision and empowerment. All of the above is why social care is critical to Scotland’s future. That is why we need a social care workforce which is valued, well-rewarded and appropriately resourced. That is why we need to undertake necessary reforms and critically that is why we need to properly resource a sector that is a major contributor to Scotland’s economic and national progress. Social care is not the handmaiden of the NHS- there as an adjunct department to clinician care and medical intervention . This why we cannot treat the two as if they were the same. Whilst inextricably linked the healthcare we deliver is vastly different from the social care we should rightly demand. One of the fundamental areas of difference has to do with choice. If I have a medical emergency then personally I want the best clinical care and don’t really want to have much say in who delivers that care as long as they are trained, suitably qualified and supervised. A short term stay in a hospital is very different from the place and people with whom I spend my life. For if I am living with a lifelong condition or need support in any way because of life circumstances or age then I most certainly do want to have more choice and control both over who is in my life as a carer and what the nature of that support and care might be. The critical importance of legislation like Self-directed Support is all about embedding that control and choice, building those rights with the citizen. We are absolutely right to value social care as intrinsic to the fabric of our society and as a marker of the maturity of our commitment to support and uphold one another in community. In the weeks ahead social care will continue to face fiscal and workforce challenge but in those times it will remain critically important that we defend the intrinsic role and distinctiveness of social care rather than acquiesce in attempts to limit choice, control outcomes and thereby restrict individual rights. It is to be celebrated that Scots care about social care and the ageing population and it is incumbent upon all of us to ensure that social care is advanced and protected in the years ahead. Donald Macaskill @DrDMacaskill
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