It is not distance that keeps people apart, it is the failure to hear and be heard.

Every minute of every day we are communicating. The texts we send, the words we speak, the looks we give, the touch we offer – all send messages to those we are linked with and in relationship to.

Imagine not being able to do that. Imagine that your words are misunderstood, your texts do not get sent but stay on your phone; your presence is resisted and your touch brushed off.

To be excluded because you cannot communicate, to be shut out because people do not understand, to be ignored because you are not valued and recognised … that must surely be real emptiness and abandonment.

Yet that is precisely what the day to day experience of tens of thousands of our fellow Scots feels like every single minute of every day. They are excluded because we have created a distance which separates them from us  and us from them. We have failed to hear and allow people to be heard and thus the distance has grown into a divide.

I have, to my shame, only recently become as fully aware of the enormous extent of hearing issues facing the population of Scotland. The fact that in Scotland 40% of the population over the age of forty, 60% over the age 60 and 75% over 75s experience some sort of hearing difficulties I was wholly unaware of.

For thousands of these individuals this means that they are excluded from any real and meaningful participation in society. It is not just that they miss out on snippets of conversation here and there it is to put it simply that they have a cloak of invisibility and absence even if they are physically present. Their contribution is not recognised, their voice is not heard.

We have for too long made hearing impairment and hearing difficulties the butt of humour. For too long we have presumed that hearing difficulties are just an inconvenience rather than accepting the reality of their exclusion and their immense impact on individual mental health and well-being. For too long we have considered issues of hearing loss to be the inevitable consequence of age and a condition to be accepted and tholed. For too long we have disabled those born deaf by failing to adequately change the fabric of our society to include, value and treat these individuals as citizens with equal rights and the same entitlements as any other.

On Thursday this week Scottish Care will be hosting a morning workshop with deafscotland to argue for greater priority in general to be given to these issues and for the importance of the care sector addressing the challenges and welcoming the opportunities which are brought by individuals who have hearing difficulties. This is a very real attempt to start a wider public discourse around how we better include and value people who are receiving care but whose hearing difficulties have served to further dis-able and exclude them from engagement, participation and involvement.

In essence this is a matter of individual rights and collective responsibility.

I hope you will come and join us on the day and begin to work with us and deafscotland as we challenge the societal barriers and lack of resource which continues to fail to hear the voice of those with a right to be heard.

Programme and booking details are available at: https://www.scottishcare.org/right-to-be-heard/

Dr Donald Macaskill

@DrDMacaskill

Web Design Glasgow

The CMA has published new advice so care homes understand their responsibilities under consumer law.

The advice has been published as part of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) ongoing consumer protection work into residential care homes and nursing homes for older people (over 65s) across the UK.

It follows the CMA’s examination of the sector last year, which found that some residents are at risk of being treated unfairly and recommended urgent action to reform the sector.

The CMA has also published an open letter to care homes, reminding them of their responsibilities under consumer law and urging them to review the advice immediately.  Care homes may need to make changes to their contract terms and business practices as a result.

Working with its partners such as Trading Standards, the CMA will be conducting a review in 12 months’ time to assess how well care homes are complying with consumer law. It may take further action before then if it finds care homes are treating residents and their families unfairly and breaking the law.

The new advice sets out what care homes across the UK need to do to ensure they are treating their residents fairly, including:

• What upfront information they should give to potential residents, their families or other representatives and when (through websites, over the phone and when people visit) to help them make informed choices. This includes giving an indication of the weekly fees charged to self-funders and highlighting any especially important or surprising terms and conditions that will apply (such as any requirement for residents to prove they can pay for their own care for a minimum period of time)
• How to make sure contract terms and the way residents and their representatives are treated is fair
• How to handle complaints fairly and ensure their complaints procedure is easy to find and use

The CMA has also published a short guide for care homes to accompany the full advice, as well as a short guide for residents and their families that explains their rights under consumer law.

Consumer law advice for providers

Short guide to consumer rights for residents

Scottish Care members in Angus, Perth & Kinross and Tayside should be aware that the Autumn Roadshow event scheduled for 22 November in Dundee will now take place on 19 December.

For the full details on this, including how to reserve your place please visit the relevant events page on our website. 

At the 2018 Care Home Conference & Exhibition, Scottish Care launched our latest research report entitled ‘Care homes: then, now and the uncertain future’.

We undertook this research because it is Scottish Care’s belief that care home services have a fundamentally important strategic role to play in creating a person-centred, rights based pathway of care and support fit for Scotland’s citizens in the 21^st century.

But we know that the historical and recent development of care home services has shaped the sector in particular ways, both positively and negatively.  It has led to a popular understanding of care homes that is often at odds with the reality of life and work in these services, especially as these services continue to change and develop to meet the needs and wishes of individuals and communities.

This research therefore sought to track the development of care homes in order to paint a descriptive picture of the reality of modern care homes, from the perspective of care home providers, managers and front-line nurses and carers.

The findings highlight the reality that care homes have changed beyond recognition from their origins in the ‘workhouses’ of the 18^th century  – but public perception hasn’t necessarily evolved at the same rate.  Myths still abound about care homes being places of neglect, inactivity and ‘last resort’ – either as a care option or a career option.

The report therefore outlines various areas of work that need progressed urgently to ensure that the future of care homes is a more positive and sustainable one:

• Care homes understood and treated as a key component in integrated service provision
• Work undertaken on understanding resident needs
• The transformation of workforce support
• Development of proportionate and flexible scrutiny underpinned by a robust resourcing model
• The need for greater public awareness and understanding of care homes

We are clear that the publication of this research needs to be the start of a process, not the end of it.  Scottish Care is committed to ensuring that this report gets to every individual and organisation, nationally and locally, who needs to understand what the care home reality is, in all its glory and all its challenges.  And for that information sharing to lead to a more engaged and informed dialogue.

Please read the report and share your feedback with us.

We look forward to working with all providers and stakeholders to ensure that future of care homes is one grounded in information and knowledge rather than emotions and stereotypes.

If there are any individuals or organisations who you think would benefit from receiving a copy of the report in your local area, please email [email protected]

Thank you to all individuals and organisations who participated in the research through attendance at focus groups and completion of Scottish Care surveys.

You can read the report here.

We have also created an accompanying animation, with the help of Rosie McIntosh at Third Sector Lab.  You can view the short animation below:

REAL THREAT TO THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE CARE HOME SECTOR – THE ‘CINDERELLA’ SERVICE OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE – SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO INCREASE FUNDING BY 6-8 PER CENT 

CARE HOME SECTOR CALLS FOR URGENT DEBATE ON THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL CARE 

Care home operators say more needs to be done to recognise the crucial roles that care homes play in supporting vulnerable people and to ensure a sustainable future for care home services and the people that work in them. 

The message will be delivered at the National Care Home Conference in Glasgow today (FRI NOV 16) by Dr Donald Macaskill, Chief Executive of Scottish Care, the representative body for the country’s independent social care services. The 450-delegate event, which is sponsored by the Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank, will include an address by Cabinet Secretary for Health & Sport Jeane Freeman. 

Unveiling a new report ‘Care homes: then, now and the uncertain future’ – Dr Macaskill said that research with front line staff has highlighted just how much people still don’t understand about the reality of care home provision in 2018.  

He said:  

“This report demonstrates the dramatic and unappreciated changes which the care home sector has undergone over the last few years. It challenges myth and stereotype and calls for the development of a mature understanding of the invaluable role which care homes play in our health and social care system in Scotland. It argues forcibly for the need for us to challenge the societal and popular negativity which ignores the fact of the brilliant care and support given by tens of thousands of staff in care homes throughout Scotland today.” 

Highlighting that a lack of understanding of the skilled and important work that takes place in care homes is putting people off working in them, Dr Macaskill will tell delegates:  

“The most immediate challenge care homes face is getting enough of the right people to see caring as something they want to dedicate their life to.” 

What’s more, the continued under-resourcing of care homes means not only are care staff not being sufficiently rewarded but that services themselves are at very real risk of closure. 

Dr Macaskill said a 6-8% Scottish Government increase in social care funding is needed would provide the system our citizens deserve:  

“I cannot remember a period of such real threat to the sustainability of the care home sector. Things are very fragile indeed.  Care homes are truly the Cinderella service of health and social care. 

“Yet again Scottish Care is calling on our politicians to put down their party political megaphones and start talking to one another, to providers, to citizens, about how we are going to fund social care.”  

ENDS 

The Scottish Government today announced nursing student intake figures for the academic year 2019/20.

Commenting on the news that the number of student nurses starting their course in the autumn is set to increase by nearly 8 per cent, Dr Donald Macaskill, Chief Executive of Scottish Care said:

“The independent care home sector employs nearly 10% of Scotland’s nurses. The sector is facing a critical shortage of nurses with an increase in vacancies over the last year and care homes struggling to recruit skilled nursing staff. Added to this is real concern over the impact of Brexit and any future immigration restrictions.

 

“The care home sector in Scotland needs more nurses.

 

“I am therefore pleased to welcome today’s announcement on student places for 2019/20.

 

“We are grateful that the Scottish Government has listened to our concerns and is working with Scottish Care and other partners to address both the immediate and future nursing challenges facing social care. This announcement together with other initiatives will begin to address the critical shortage which our care homes are facing.

 

“Nursing in a care home setting is a rewarding and immensely fulfilling profession and we look forward to ensuring that many of those who will start their training next year will see older people’s nursing as a priority for their careers.”