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Scottish Parliament debates Social Care

Social Care has been the focus of a debate at the Scottish Parliament.

Ahead of the debate, Scottish Care Chief Executive Dr Donald Macaskill participated in a phone-in on BBC Radio Scotland, where he took the opportunity to highlight the significant issues affecting social care in Scotland. With local and general elections approaching, Dr Macaskill reiterated his plea for voters to consider these issues when they head to the polling station in the coming weeks.

To listen to the piece on Radio Scotland’s Call Kaye programme please click here

For more details on the debate at Holyrood please click here 

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Read Scottish Care’s response to integration inquiry

The Scottish Parliament’s Health & Sport Committee recently issued a call for evidence in relation to integration authorities’ engagement with stakeholders, to which Scottish Care responded.

Full details of the inquiry can be found here.

To read Scottish Care’s response, click here.

The Committee held an evidence session on this topic this morning which Scottish Care contributed to.  More information can be found here.

Dr Donald Macaskill said:

‘The importance of having the independent sector which employs over 103,000 people at the table and influencing the shape of services has never been clearer. Real partnership involves presence. We are willing to contribute to reshaping care for older people – but we need to be there to share.”

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Statement on Age Scotland report

Following the publication of Age Scotland’s latest report, Meeting Our Commitment to Care, Scottish Care’s Chief Executive has issued the following statement:

 

Scottish Care Chief Executive Dr Donald Macaskill said:

“Scottish Care welcomes this important research from Age Scotland, which highlights the shameful underfunding of elderly care in Scotland.

“Serious questions need to be asked about how we value the care of older people in Scotland, and what can be done to ensure every stage of an individual’s care journey prioritises their dignity, choice and human rights.  It is unacceptable that these delays are taking place, and finances – or a lack of them – cannot be seen as an acceptable justification or excuse.

“What’s more, delaying or denying someone’s access to care and support is counterproductive from a financial perspective anyway, never mind the negative impact this has on an older person’s health and wellbeing.  A lack of support being provided in someone’s own home or in a care home is likely to lead to more presentations at A&E departments and hospital admissions that may have been preventable with the appropriate support being funded and delivered in the community within appropriate timescales.

“Scottish Care’s 2015 report, Home Delivery, found that the average cost of one emergency admission for an individual aged 65+ equates to caring for 27.7 care at home clients for one week, or 9.28 weeks of residential care for an individual.  Therefore any illusion on the part of Local Authorities that delaying support to someone will save money is clearly false.

“Scottish Care is currently undertaking research, due to be published on 12 May, which further explores the impact of Free Personal Care on individuals in receipt of support and the care workforce.

“Shifting the balance of care towards enabling people to live at home, healthy and independent, for as long as possible has been a key policy objective of successive Scottish Governments.  But paradoxically what we have seen over the last decade or so is not that more people are being cared for and supported at home, but fewer albeit for longer and with more intensive packages of care and support.

“This research will highlight that the tightened eligibility criteria for receiving Free Personal Care means that increasingly, support in people’s own homes is being limited to only individuals with high level, intensive support needs and those who would previously have received support .

“This raises questions about how older people are being supported at an earlier stage in their care journey.  We would argue that they are being forgotten about under the current funding system, which is unacceptable.

“Urgent action is required by national and local governments to address the chronic underfunding of Scotland’s older people.  There are very real issues of ageism at play here in how we view, value and fund older people’s care, compared with other care groups.  Scottish Care has therefore issued an Agenda for Care in advance of the Scottish Local Elections and the General Election, calling on all parties to prioritise social care and the care of older people, and calling on citizens to consider whether their vote, whoever it is for, is a #VoteforCare.”

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Job: Office Manager & Executive PA

An exciting opportunity has arisen within Scottish Care for an Office Manager & Executive PA to work as part of our national team. This is a full time post (35 hours per week), based in Scottish Care’s offices in Ayr. There will be a requirement for occasional attendance at meetings & events

Scottish Care is the representative body for the largest group of health and social care sector independent providers across Scotland delivering residential care, day care, care at home and housing support.

Applicants must have experience in finance business management, in accounts and preferably have knowledge of SAGE.

They must have the ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines, demonstrate versatility & flexibility along with excellent interpersonal skills at all levels and possess significant IT competencies.

The post holder will be responsible for the company accounts, CEOs diary and duties of a Company Secretary, along with organisational & administrative responsibilities and the ability to support staff in the office and across Scotland in delivering services to members.

This is an exciting post for someone who will have a strong commitment to the work of the organisation and the ability to work in a culture that is creative, structured and innovative.

For further information please read the Office Manager & PA Job Description, Person Specification & Equality Monitoring Form available on the links below.

Application Process

An Application Form  can be obtained directly from Cath Balmer, Office Manager, Scottish Care, 54a Holmston Road, Ayr KA7 3BE or by email from [email protected].  Completed forms should be returned to her no later than 12 noon on Friday 5th May 2017

Interviews will be held in on Thursday 18th May 2017.  

Download the job profile here.

Download the application form here. 

Download the equality monitoring form here.

CVs will not be accepted.

Interviews will be held on Thursday 18th May 2017.

Closing Date: 12 noon on Friday 5 May 2017.

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New overnight care at home service in Inverness

The following news item appeared in The Press and Journal on 20th April 2017 and highlights the success of a pilot undertaken by Scottish Care Local Integration Leads in Inverness.

A new overnight care-at-home service is to be trialled in Inverness to ease pressure on hospital beds.

NHS Highland announced yesterday that it was launching the year-long pilot project in partnership with care provider group Scottish Care.

It will involve staff at three independent providers – Gateway, Castle Care and Eildon – helping support patients in the Highland capital in their homes at night.

The initiative, which is expected to be rolled out across the region in the future, aims to reduce the length of hospital stays in the region and enable patients to receive more care at home.

Announcing the pilot, NHS Highland’s special projects lead Jean-Pierre Sieczkarek said: “The overnight service is a response to the need for support during the night to allow safe discharge from hospital where required, to respond to social care interventions such as falls and help calls and support people to be safely supported in their own home.

“We are hopeful that this type of intervention will take pressure off our hospitals by reducing the number of admissions and speeding up discharge for patients.

“We are confident that this initiative can prevent people from being placed in residential care, when support overnight could allow them the choice of returning home.”

Rhoda Grant, Highlands and Islands Labour MSP, said: “It’s a good initiative. Anything that keeps people at home, or allows them to get home more quickly, is to be welcomed.

“I often speak to GPs who say they have no alternative but to send vulnerable people to hospital because there is no alternative at night when they should not be left alone either due to illness or a fall.”

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Latest blog from our CEO: #VoteforCare

#VoteforCare

Over the next few weeks if you don’t like politics or like Brenda from Bristol you are fatigued by the constancy of being offered to vote in elections and referenda, it might be best if you leave the country for two months.

Within hours of the General Election being announced the political rhetoric was being refined, the battle buses were being serviced and the party spin was being texted to aspirant and existing politicians. Before even 24 hours had passed the print and visual media had polished up their appearance, the studio couches had been vacuumed and the logos and backdrops had been re-designed.

There is on one level something theatrical about the ‘event’ which is an election, whether at local or national level. The machine whether smooth or juddery, new or old, usually follows predictable tramlines. We’ve already had a dose of mud-slinging mixed with accusations of betrayal and personal condemnation. Increasingly you either love it or loathe it.

What is inescapable, is that all too often the critical issues get brushed aside by a wave of reportage which focuses on personality and a popularity contest. What is regrettably all too common is that debate and rhetoric are reduced to sound-bites rather than an articulation of complexity and a search for shared solutions. What is almost inevitable is that an election diminishes consensus and consolidates polarity.

The role of an organisation like Scottish Care is always a challenging one during an election. We walk a tightrope seeking to avoid being party political whilst at the same time wanting to articulate the issues that matter to our members, to workers and the people being supported and cared for.

Social care has rarely been at the critical juncture it finds itself at the current time. We are a sector no longer on the edge of crisis but daily battling for survival. That may sound melodramatic but it is the acute reality for all too many.

So, we aren’t going to tell you who to vote for but over the next eight weeks through the Scottish Local Elections and up to the General Election what we invite you to do is to #VoteforCare. We will release weekly statements on what a Vote for Care might mean.

We invite you to ask your candidates and parties what are they planning to do for social care in Scotland?

What will they do to address the fact that:

  • We have a 28% vacancy level for nurses in care homes in Scotland
  • We have 9 out of 10 home care companies struggling to recruit staff
  • We pay as a society only £3.97 per hour to support an older person in a care home with 24/7 intensive nursing care
  • We pay our frontline care workers on average a £1 less than they can get for stacking shelves in the local supermarket
  • We have workers forced to get someone out of bed, washed and fed in less than 20 minutes
  • We have people being cared for in their last few days by staff who are stressed and burnt out because of overwork
  • We have family carers at breaking point because more and more is expected of them
  • We risk losing 1 in 12 carers who work in Scotland but come from Europe
  • We daily hear from older Scots who feel they have been short-changed in the care the Government will pay for them

So whoever you are, someone who receives support at home or is cared for in a nursing home, a family member or a friend, a care worker or someone who simply wants the vulnerable to be supported with dignity, let us all make care matter in the midst of the political noise.

Let all of us ask candidates what they plan to do not just what they plan to say, and together let’s make sure we all #VoteforCare.

Donald Macaskill

@DrDMacaskill

 

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Care at Home & Housing Support Awards – 2017 Finalists

Scottish Care is delighted to confirm the finalists in the 2017 Care at Home & Housing Support Awards. The winners will be announced on the 12th May, when all finalists will be invited to our annual evening event at the Marriott Hotel in Glasgow, where tremendous work in Care at Home & Housing Support across Scotland will be showcased and celebrated.

For details on the Scottish Care Annual Care at Home & Housing Support Conference, Exhibition & Awards please visit the relevant area of our website or click here to book tickets

 

Please see the full list of finalists below:

Care at Home Carer (Individual or Team)

Accomodation & Alcohol Support Fordneuk, Loretto
Heather Gilluley, Mears
Alexis Higgins, Aspire
Lanarkshire Care Team, HRM Homecare

Housing Support Carer (Individual or Team)

Accommodation & Alcohol Support – Alcohol Outreach Service, Loretto Housing Association
Belleisle House Team, Aspire
Sarah Burr, Mears Care

Management & Leadership 

Sharon Fleming, Loretto
George Rattigan, Carewatch
Lynsey Torbit, Bluebird Care
Kaye McEwan, Mears

Training and Staff Development

Jurgita Sleinke, Highland Home Carers
Jennifer Watson, Montana Home Care
Nina MacLean, Bluebird Care
Sandra Auld, HRM Homecare Services

Co-ordinator/Administrator

Michelle Wilson, Mears Group
Leona Hollywood, Mears Clackmannanshire
Sharon Azbraitis, Constance Care

Innovative Practice

Appin & Lismore Community Care Teams, Highland Home Carers
Clever Cogs, Blackwood Homes & Care
Wellbeing Team Dumfries Care Solutions, Rainbow Care & Commissioner for Dumfries & Galloway

Client Achievement

David Breingan, Mears Clackmannanshire
Craig Ireland, Mears Care Scotland
Steven Brodie, Mears Care Scotland
Samantha Cullen, Aspire

Housing Support and Care at Home Providers

Bright Care
Baillieston Community Care
Bluebird Care
Tailor Maid Home Care

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Scottish Parliament to debate preventative health spend

Members of the Scottish Parliament will discuss the preventative health agenda in a Holyrood debate secured by the Health and Sport Committee later (Tuesday 18 April).

The Committee has been examining actions to reduce demand on health in the longer term, following on the work of the Christie Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services, and the Finance Committee in 2010.

The Health and Sport Committee Debate: Inquiry into the Preventative Health Agenda is scheduled for the afternoon session at the Scottish Parliament from 2pm.

You can read more details on the Debate here or view the Scottish Parliamentary Chamber from 2pm here

Scottish Care has contributed to the evidence presented to the Committee with the following document:

[gview file=”https://www.scottishcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Preventative-Spend-Inquiry.docx”]

 

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Scottish Care highlight growing staff shortages

Care providers are warning that the lack of people working in the sector is crippling care provision across Scotland.

The growing shortages of care staff in care home, care at home and housing support services for older people need to be treated as a political priority, say care sector representatives.

Scottish Care, the body that represents private and voluntary providers of social care, has released new data which shows:

For care home services:

  • More than three quarters of services (77%) have current staff vacancies
  • 25% of services have found it more difficult to recruit care staff this year, and a further 64% found recruitment to be as difficult as the previous year.
  • 44% of care home services rely on the EU as a recruitment pool for support workers The average rate of staff turnover is 22%

For care at home & housing support services:

  • 89% of care at home & housing support services have staff vacancies at present
  • 90% of organisations have difficulty filling support worker vacancies
  • Over half (58%) have said recruitment is harder this year than last, with only 3% stating it was less difficult.
  • Nearly 10% of care at home staff are from the European Union.
  • One third of total staff leave every year.

 

The surveys on which this data is based were led by Scottish Care and provided data from nearly 250 care services, which deliver care for over 25,000 individuals across Scotland and employ over 10,000 people.

Speaking about the survey results, Scottish Care CEO Dr Donald Macaskill said:

“These are very worrying statistics, particularly given that they represent a trend of increased difficulty for care providers in recruiting and retaining staff.  These figures have been worse year on year from 2015.

“The recruitment and retention crisis facing the care sector makes the planning and delivery of reliable, high quality and sustainable care very difficult for care providers.  However, it also means that individuals in receipt of services have their choices compromised, whether that is in terms of who they want to deliver their care and when, or whether they even receive a care service at all.  We know that the lack of staff is directly impacting on services’ ability to support people most in need, including those who are ready to be discharged from hospitals.  Providers are regularly having to turn down care packages because they simply do not have the staff to deliver this care.

“We need a joint approach to considering why there is such a challenge in terms of people coming in to and staying in the care sector.  Whilst the Scottish Living Wage has been a first step in improving recognition of care staff, there are clearly other significant issues which are not just about money but other rewards and forms of recognition. 

“The work undertaken by care staff is highly skilled, hugely important, extremely rewarding but also very challenging and completely undervalued.  This needs to change as a matter of urgency. 

“We have therefore launched our Agenda for Care, a manifesto which outlines what we believe should be the priorities of national and local Government in light of the upcoming Local Elections in May.  We are calling on politicians and councillors to work with us to progress the ten points of this Agenda.”

Central to this Agenda for Care are:

  • Valuing social care – in order that services and their workforces can develop and adapt to suit the needs of individuals
  • Securing the workforce – ensuring that there is a joined up, planned approach to overcoming the recruitment and retention crises in the social care sector
  • A human rights based framework for care provision – protecting and promoting individuals’ rights and choices, which includes ensuring these are not compromised by a lack of suitable care provision

Dr Macaskill added:

“We must make working in care an attractive option for all individuals.  If we are going to see a future of integrated health and social care teams which put the individual at the centre of their own care, we must address the particular workforce issues in the social care sector.

“The social care workforce must be seen as a key national and local political priority.  We can see no other profession which is so critical to the lives and wellbeing of so many, but which is so under-recognised and under-valued.  If this doesn’t change, the future of care provision looks very bleak indeed.”