The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) would like to hear from providers as part of a market study into care and nursing homes for the elderly.

The CMA has recently launched this study to review how well the UK market for care and nursing homes works, and it wants to hear from providers about the services they offer and any challenges they face.

CEO Dr Macaskill said:

“Scottish Care welcomes the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) upcoming market study of UK care homes, including the Scottish care home sector.

 “It is important that the process of purchasing care home places, both for residents and in relation to how local authorities commission, are fair, transparent and outcomes-focused. It is therefore positive that the CMA will be exploring this.

 “It will be critical that the study has a comprehensive a picture of the care home sector and looks at the areas of interest it has identified in sufficient detail.

 “For Scotland, an exploration of the care home market must include the National Care Home Contract and its reform, the impact of health and social care integration and workforce challenges being faced by the sector such as the Scottish Living Wage and the recruitment and retention of nurses.

 “Scottish Care therefore intends to be supportive to the study through the sharing of information and through the fostering of positive dialogue between the independent care home sector and the CMA throughout the study’s duration.”

For more details of the study and how to contribute, see: https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/care-homes-market-study

Following the Draft Budget Statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance the attached letter has been received from senior officials within the Scottish Government and COSLA.

Scottish Care warmly welcomes the commitment in the Statement and in this letter to the funding of £100million to finance the Scottish Living Wage to £8.45 and the decision that there will be no expected provider contribution, as well as the acceptance of the additional on costs which employers face and the recognition of the need for funding to ensure the sustainability of the sector as a whole.

Scottish Care is committed to working with our statutory partners to ensure that the next round of implementation builds on good practice, where providers have been fully engaged, involved and consulted and where there has been a real sense of partnership to achieve positive outcomes for those who receive support.

Scottish Care has long campaigned for the true valuing and recognition of our front line care workers, who give so much to some of our most vulnerable citizens.  We acknowledge that this announcement is a significant step in achieving this aim.

 

Dr Donald Macaskill

Chief Executive

Scottish Care

The Scottish Care Executive and National Committee are meeting today in Glasgow at the Hilton Hotel from 9:30am onwards.

Closes on Friday: Please take part in our important Scottish Living Wage surveys

 

For Scottish Care Members:

It is now some time since the 1st October saw the start of the Scottish Living Wage (SLW) for front line care workers.  Negotiations for fee rates will be significantly affected both by the introduction of the SLW this year and any future increases.

We want to gain evidence on the impact of the SLW on the care home and care at home/housing support sectors and would be very grateful if you could complete the relevant survey.  This will support our ongoing discussions and negotiations, including in relation to the National Care Home Contract and the Care at Home/Housing Support reform process currently underway.

The information given will be treated in the strictest confidence and will be anonymised when analysed to ensure it is non-identifiable.

Please complete one survey per organisation.  The surveys can be accessed below:

 

Care at Home / Housing Support SLW Survey

Care Home SLW Survey

 

Please complete the relevant survey by 16 December 2016.  It is important that we have a good number of responses to ensure the resulting data is robust.

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact [email protected]

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

A statement from Dr Donald Macaskill, CEO, Scottish Care

There has been a great deal of emphasis in the media over the last few days about the need to put additional financial resources into social care funding in England and Wales and I have been asked what should be happening in Scotland.

As many of you will know Derek Mackay, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Constitution is due to make a Statement to the Scottish Parliament on Thursday afternoon (15 December) on the Scottish Draft Budget for 2017-18. This will provide the basis for discussions with Local Government and it will provide some insight into the possible funding of social care over the next year.

Before the Scottish Parliamentary elections earlier in the year Scottish Care issued an Agenda for Care.

This was a ten point plan which asked all candidates to address the issues challenging the sector at the time, and amongst them was the inadequacy of funding for social care for older people, whether that was care home or care at home and housing support services.

Eight months on the care sector in Scotland is under immense pressure. There are several ways in which a Scottish Budget by prioritising social care can help support the reform agenda that is currently underway within Scotland.

1.  Earlier this year the Scottish Government allocated £250 million to Integrated Joint Boards and part of this has gone to pay the Scottish Living Wage to front line care staff. However the process of achieving this aim has not been without difficulty. Many care home and care at home providers have had to pay on-costs and increase the salaries of those who do not deliver front line care; others have had to draw on reserves and savings to enable them to pay the Living Wage. In other words the welcome Scottish Living Wage initiative has been partly and not fully funded. We call upon the Scottish Government to ensure that any additional increases in the Scottish Living Wage placed upon care providers are fully funded and that consideration is given to other workers in the care sector to ensure equality and fair treatment.
2.  At present one in four nursing posts in care homes are vacant with providers having to pay exorbitant fees to agencies to ensure services can continue to be safely delivered. We are calling upon Scottish Government to ensure there is dedicated funding to address the nursing shortage in the social care sector including by means of an immediate increase in student placements.
3. Together with partners in Scottish Government and COSLA, amongst others, Scottish Care has been engaged in undertaking work to develop an independent and robust mechanism for calculating the true cost of care in care homes and care at home services. We are calling on the Scottish Government to ensure that there is sufficiency of resource to enable the required reform of care home and care at home/housing support services to be fully and properly funded.

We recognise that both local and national Government are under financial pressures and that there will always be competing demands on limited resources.

Scottish Care believes that expenditure on social care even in straitened times is money well spent because it serves as a preventative measure for individuals and in the long term is much more economical.

The cost of not prioritising social care at this time is a very human one. If we do not adequately support our care at home and care home sector we will end up with unsustainable services which will have a direct impact on individuals. We risk older individuals being stuck in hospital unnecessarily with all the trauma and distress that that causes, because without investment there will not be an adequacy of care home or care at home services. Not resourcing social care carries a real human cost.

Scottish Care believes that the time has come for our valuing of our older citizens and those who care for them to be at the heart of financial decision-making. The Scottish Budget offers all of us a potential opportunity to put older people’s care at the heart of our nation. It is an opportunity we should not miss.

Dr Donald Macaskill

CEO, Scottish Care

Health and Sport Committee asks questions re Nursing Workforce Data

 

The Convenor of the Health and Sport Committee of the Scottish Parliament as part of their Inquiry into Recruitment and Retention has asked the Cabinet Secretary for information relating to nursing recruitment into the social care sector. The Committee raises important questions about the extent to which the current critical shortage in nurses in social care has previously been factored into student intake calculations and what impact any inclusion has had to date.

 

Scottish Care remains concerned, as was highlighted in evidence given to the Committee by our Chief Executive Dr Donald Macaskill, that the critical level of nurse vacancies and likely ongoing negative impacts caused by Brexit and other factors, needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

 

You can read the letter at

www.parliament.scot/S5_HealthandSportCommittee/Inquiries/Letter_to_Cab_Sec_-_Final_no_sig(1).pdf

Scottish Care’s CEO Dr Donald Macaskill has been called twice in the last two months to give evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee. The Health and Sport Committee has been conducting an Inquiry into Recruitment and Retention within the Social Care Workforce. They have explored issues such as work-life balance, rural recruitment, the impact of the Scottish Living Wage, commissioning practice, the role of Integrated Joint Boards, the impact of Brexit and other themes.

They requested responses on a range of these issues from the Cabinet Secretary and her letter is contained here:

Glasgow Providers Meeting – Scottish Care

Poem by the wonderful Ken Cockburn to sum up the themes, ideas and feelings from the recent National Annual Care Home Convention and Exhibition Friday 18th November at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow.

Shared Stakes by Ken Cockburn    

We’re trying to do things differently this year

It’s always good to ponder what we mean

A shared stake in the success of care

It needs to be done correctly every day

We’re not perfect, I wouldn’t pretend we are

But are we really as good as we think we are?

We all know what the problems are by now

Struggling with constant distractions and urgent tasks

All the uncertainty that goes with that

We know new models are developing

With everyone in the room we’d work this out

Professional loneliness we should avoid

Everyone’s a house with four rooms

They will give us their own perspective on things

I’ve enjoyed my life, apart from this carry on

She gets back to sleep again, he doesn’t

Again a very tangible example

To give that physiotherapy student a glimpse

Doing good things in difficult circumstances

Being able to have the language at those times

Seeing the delight on people’s faces

My grandchildren – thinking about them laugh

Being by the sea and listening to it

This is the kind of thing I’d like to highlight

How do we capture that and then move forward?

Assistance from afar but when you need it

Being hands on, being there for someone

We need to get about it as it’s pressing

Something we need to do across the board

It’s so important that we have that voice

Just some examples that I’ve whistled through

Please do not underestimate what you do

I hope you enjoy the rest of your afternoon.

 

www.kencockburn.co.uk