The Truacanta Project: Helping each other with death, dying, loss and care

Are you interested in taking community action to improve people’s experiences of death, dying, loss and care?

Are you or do you want to get involved in practical work to build compassion in your own community?

The Truacanta Project is seeking expressions of interest now!

Find out more information and express your interest: www.goodlifedeathgrief.org.uk/content/thetruacantaproject

View the Project flyer

 

The Trucuanta Project is an exciting new initiative that will work with communities to develop projects around improving people’s experiences of deteriorating health, death, dying and bereavement. After an initial application process, up to four communities from across Scotland will receive dedicated community development advice and support for two years.

Expressions of interest are now being accepted until 15/06/19

A shortlisted number of interested communities will then be supported to put together a more detailed application to be part of the project

 

Further information:

The Truacanta Project, Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care, CBC House, 24 Canning Street, Edinburgh EH3 8EG

Tel: 0131 272 2735

www.goodlifedeathgrief.org.uk/content/thetruacantaproject

Facebook: LifeDeathGrief

Twitter:@LifeDeathGrief

Instagram: @lifedeathgrief

Blog: Madonna as a champion of age

Our CEO Dr Donald Macaskill was pleased to take part in Scotland’s first Festival of Age which was held in Glasgow on Thursday 23rd May.

Before the event he wrote the following blog to challenge some of the stereotypes and negative attitudes which still exist around age. Madonna – The champion of age.  Over the years the controversial singer Madonna has spoken about the flak that she had to take because of “using sexuality as part of my creativity” and with being labelled a “sexual provocateur” amongst the politest of critiques. She is now facing a new battle and in an interview in British Voguepublished on 10th May has argued that she is now fighting ageism in the music industry and that she is “being punished” for hitting 60. She told Voguemagazine: “People have always been trying to silence me for one reason or another, whether it’s that I’m not pretty enough, I don’t sing well enough, I’m not talented enough, I’m not married enough, and now it’s that I’m not young enough. All too many people will share Madonna’s angst about ageism and I for one look forward to her battling against it. Ageism is so endemic that it has become part and parcel of the wallpaper of our realities – so subtle, so pervasive that it is not even noticed; it is just accepted as a given, as a state of unalterable being. It’s almost the same position that racism was in the 1950s and early 1960s – so unconsciously accepted as a social norm in the UK that it went unnoticed – except by its victims. It is in the language we use, the stereotypes we accept, the rhetoric we hear. What do a ticking time bomb, a silver tsunami and a population apocalypse all have in common? No, they aren’t the latest plotline from an episode of Line of Dutybut rather they are phrases used to describe the fact that we are living longer. They are highly negative descriptions of a reality that most of us would or should want to celebrate – we are dying older and healthier than at any time in Scottish history. So why the negativity? Why is it that so much of our cultural and political discourse about old age paints such a dark and depressing picture of decline? Old age is something which should be valued, but alarmist attitudes fail to recognise the benefits and potential of older age and feed into the myth that getting old is about losing something rather than gaining something new and potentially positive. Old age is seen as a challenge rather than an opportunity. Everywhere you look there are negative stereotypes which perpetuate the myth that older people are incapable and dependent, have nothing to contribute but rather are a burden and a drain on society. We see this in many of the current debates about social care and health which count up the costs an ageing population results in but fail to recognise that over 90% of care delivered in this country comes from the hands of people who are themselves old thus saving the taxpayer countless millions. In Scotland I am sure we would like to believe that we treat all peoples as equal, regardless of colour, creed, disability, sexual orientation and we have indeed made great strides in addressing discrimination and hate. But have we made the same progress against negative stereotyping and discrimination which is based on age? I think not – why is it that a child in receipt of residential care will have nearly double the amount of public resource allocated to their care than an older person of 90 in a care home? Why is it that countless individuals talk about not even getting the chance of an interview if they are over 60 and are seeking employment? Why is it that at the age of 65 people who are accessing social care support move from being an adult onto being an ‘older person’ and in some areas such as mental health services they tell us they suddenly find the level of their support diminishes? Do we feel it is adequate that for thousands of older people seeking social care support that you can only now be eligible if your need is ‘critical’, that our social care services are critically under-funded? We need to take off the heather-tinted glasses and face up to the reality that Scotland is as ageist a nation as many others in the world but rather than just recognise this we need to act . Yes, the Scottish Government has just published a great summative strategy, but … Scotland has a real opportunity to do things much better. Embedding human rights at the heart of economic, social and political systems is a start. However, regardless of good policy intention and political priorities unless we address the pervasive cult of youth in our society, we will continue to acquiesce with ageist discrimination. So, with Madonna I will continue to fight against the ageist discrimination that fails to value contribution, for me that means fighting for Scotland to have an Older People’s Commissioner and for a Convention of the Rights of Age. What does it mean for you? How can we together create a country which is the best place in which to grow old and in which value and contribution is recognised regardless of chronology?   In the words of Madonna:

“I have a dream But dreams are not for free We all need to change Or just repeat history.”

Dr Donald Macaskill CEO, Scottish Care

The Colin McNab Palliative and End of Life Care Prize: new front line care worker fund launched

Following a generous gift from Border Caring Services, Scottish Care is delighted to announce the establishment of the Colin McNab Palliative and End of Life Care Prize.  The Prize was announced by Scottish Care CEO Dr Donald Macaskill at the Annual Care at Home & Housing Support Conference in Glasgow. 

 

What is the Prize?

An Award of £2,000 will be given to an individual or team working within the care home sector.

An Award of £2,000 will be given to an individual or team working within the care at home and/or housing support sector.

The Prize should be used to support personal learning and development. For instance, it may be used to contribute to further academic and skills training, attendance at a conference, purchase of resources etc.

The use of the Prize will be subject to approval by Scottish Care.

 

Who can apply:

The Prize is open to any worker or team of workers within a service which is a member of Scottish Care.

The individual or team should be currently delivering palliative and end of life care.

 

How to apply:

Applications are open from 1 June and close on 31 August.  

The Prize applications will be judged by an independent committee and the successful nominees will be informed by 30 September 2019.

The application form can be accessed further down this page.

 

Prize information and application guidance

Putting Human Rights into the Commissioning Cycle: new briefing paper launched at Conference

At today’s Annual Care at Home & Housing Support Conference, National Director Karen Hedge launched a new briefing paper for the home care sector focused on the commissioning and procurement landscape.

Entitled, ‘Putting Human Rights into the Commissioning Cycle: How to articulate your gut instinct‘, the paper outlines what is currently underway and what needs to change around five areas of commissioning:

  • procurement
  • fair work
  • competition or collaboration
  • improvement
  • intelligence and data

The paper calls for the adoption of an approach based on human rights principles in order to ensure a dignified and sustainable approach to commissioning and care.

You can follow the conference on Twitter at #homecare19

Human Rights Commissioning May 19

Scottish Care CEO Conference Address: A Care Twilight Zone

Today (Friday 17 May) sees Scottish Care’s 13th Annual Care at Home & Housing Support Conference, Exhibition and Awards take place at the Marriott Hotel, Argyle Street, Glasgow.

Over 200 day delegates are attending including care providers, local authority, NHS, Scottish Government and regulatory colleagues.   This event is the only one of its kind in Scotland specifically for the homecare sector.

The title of this year’s conference is ‘Redressing the balance: the potential of home care” and the event is kindly sponsored by Quality Compliance systems. 

We are indisputably at an extremely challenging period in the care at home and housing support sector, and CEO Dr Donald Macaskill recognised this in his Address to delegates this morning.

Launching a briefing paper outlining the challenges, entitled ‘A Care Twilight Zone’, Donald revisited the 12 areas set out at last year’s conference and considered what has changed and what more needs done.

You can read the briefing paper here.

Follow the Conference on Twitter at #homecare19

Press release: care sector facing a ‘twilight zone’

Provider representatives of home care providers say insufficient progress has been made in ensuring care services are safe and sustainable for Scotland’s older citizens and as a result, the sector is facing imminent demise.

The message will be delivered at the National Care at Home & Housing Support Conference in Glasgow today (FRI MAY 17) by Dr Donald Macaskill, Chief Executive of Scottish Care, the representative body for the country’s independent social care services. The 250 delegate event, which is sponsored by Quality Compliance Systems, will include an address by Cabinet Secretary for Health & Sport Jeane Freeman.

Unveiling a briefing paper based on his Conference Address – ‘A Care Twilight Zone” – Dr Macaskill said:

“We believe the truth and robustness of our arguments for rebalancing care are clear and demonstrable.  We believe passionately that the potential of homecare to re-shape care and support in Scotland is undeniable.

 “But we seem to talk in places where no-one is listening; we look around us and see care organisations going to the wall with disturbing regularity; where a growing number of providers are saying they simply cannot afford to work with the public sector in Scotland because of the increasing desire to pay less for more and to drive down the costs of care. Faced with that landscape evidencing a general state of care economic and delivery decline and dilapidation across the country, in my estimation, we are undeniably in a care twilight zone.”

In his address, Dr Macaskill will highlight nine key areas where urgent work is required to stabilize the home care sector in Scotland:

  • The Scottish Living Wage
  • Time & task commissioning of care
  • Approaches to prevention
  • Access to Self-Directed Support for older people
  • Recruitment of staff
  • Qualifications and the older care workforce
  • Integration of health & social care
  • The use of technology
  • Funding of social care

This week Scottish Care has written to COSLA calling for an urgent roundtable including the Scottish Government and the care regulator to address the immediate challenges facing the care at home and housing support sector.

Dr Macaskill said:

“We believe we urgently need to get round the table to come up with some practical solutions or we will not be able to continue to deliver vital services in the months ahead.

“We believe that we have to have a serious debate about how we are to fund social care into our futures, and I wonder if the silence to date is not indicative of a political desire to hide heads in the sand the closer we come to elections?

“We remain deeply concerned that there is a lack of political energy beyond political party interest and ambition to gather around the table and properly explore how we will fund social care in the short and medium term.

We have to stop talking about and start implementing the change. We have a sector which is on its knees and it is way beyond the point of putting out the begging bowl for the scraps of finance left over when other sectors and issues are funded.” 

 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Scottish Care is a membership organisation and the representative body for independent sector social care services in Scotland and speaks with a single unified voice for small, medium and large providers across the independent care sector. This covers private and voluntary sector care home, care at home and housing support services, and also includes those who use independent sector care services.

Independent and voluntary sector providers combined employ nearly 100,000 social care staff, with nearly 71,000 of these individuals working in Housing Support and Care at Home services.

Each night of the week, home care providers support nearly 50,000 individuals in their own homes, most with increasingly complex needs.

The social care sector plays an important part in the Scottish economy, providing employment for over 202,000 people and generating an annual turnover of several billion pounds.

 

You can follow the Conference on Twitter using the hashtag #homecare19

 

Living and Dying Well with Frailty Collaborative – HIS seeking applications

Healthcare Improvement Scotland have announced the launch of the ihub’s new collaborative from the Living Well in the Communities Portfolio.

It is an opportunity for Health and Social Care Partnerships and GP Clusters to improve how people aged 65 and over are supported to live and die well with frailty in the community.

Please see below the information relating to this and how to apply, should you be interested.

20190429 Living and Dying Well with Frailty - Advert

Holyrood Staffing Bill – update

Last week the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Bill was passed unanimously in Parliament. Scottish Care gave evidence in Parliament has been successfully lobbying on behalf of our members to ensure that the Bill in its final stage is fit for our sector.

National Director Karen Hedge said:

We are confident that the Guiding Principles of the Bill, set with the purpose of ensuring the delivery of safe and high-quality services and ensuring the best care outcomes for those who access care and support is supportive of the very ethos of the independent care sector.

 

Whilst the legislation in itself will not solve the very real recruitment and retention challenges that the sector is currently facing, it will indirectly contribute to national workforce planning.

 

Most significantly, under section 7A, this will be through the requirement of Scottish Ministers to annually issue Parliament with a report on how the duties imposed by the Bill are being enacted. This includes the duties on those who provide, plan and secure care services, creating an official record by which to measure the impact of the Bill on staffing levels.

 

Critically the report must include steps that Ministers have taken to ensure that “funding is available to any person who provides a care service in order to assist in the discharge of those duties”.

 

The Bill as a whole sets duties upon “any person who provides a care service” in that they must have regard to any guidance which Ministers decide to issue, and additionally, if it is decided to pursue the development of a set of Staffing tools for the sector.

 

The development of tools would be led by the Care Inspectorate but must involve the sector to ensure that they support provision rather than limit it. Any tools should consider both quantitative and qualitative information, to include professional judgement and as such compliments existing work which Scottish Care has been involved in with regards to a capability tool to support the National Care Home Contract. In addition, there is real opportunity if the staffing method were developed to support the recognition and value of interdisciplinary working.

 

Scottish Care will continue to represent our members in the development of any staffing method or tools and in the development of any guidance which Scottish Ministers may issue.