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• ‘Nobody found him in time’: how neglect and stress led to the deaths of a full-time carer and his son

  24-03-2025 06:00
  David Lodge died after being found next to his father and full-time carer Peter’s body. His sister Keri believes the strain of caring and lack of government support contributed to their deathsPeter Lodge devoted his life to his son, David. He cherished every moment with him, even when David’s condition left them effectively housebound. Right up until he was 74, Peter would sleep on the living room floor beside David’s hospital bed. Not once did he see his role as a burden.He wa
  
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• In a town far from Whitehall, I saw just how devastating Labour’s cuts will be. So why can’t ministers? | John Harris

  23-03-2025 13:08
  A day with a care worker in Bury showed me the intolerable pressures of her life – and then I heard the news of a new squeeze on benefitsJust under a fortnight ago, my working day began at 6.45am, on a silent cul-de-sac near Bury, in Greater Manchester. I was there to shadow Julia, a domiciliary care worker, on her daily morning rounds. She was about to let herself into the home of a 93-year-old woman. “She’ll be asleep in bed,” Julia told me. In 30 packed minutes, she ha
  
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• In a town far from Whitehall, I saw how devastating Labour’s cuts will be. When will ministers wake up? | John Harris

  23-03-2025 13:08
  
  A day with a care worker in Bury showed me the intolerable pressures of her life – and then I heard the news of a new squeeze on benefitsJust under a fortnight ago, my working day began at 6.45am, on a silent cul-de-sac near Bury, in Greater Manchester. I was there to shadow Julia, a domiciliary care worker, on her daily morning rounds. She was about to let herself into the home of a 93-year-old woman. “She’ll be asleep in bed,” Julia told me. In 30 packed minutes, she ha
  
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• US urged to ‘think bigger’ on healthcare amid Trump onslaught on sector

  22-03-2025 12:00
  
  Healthcare journal calls for radical change in approach, urging policymakers to invest in their communitiesAn academic journal may inject some optimism into US health policy – a scarce commodity amid the Trump administration’s mass layoffs, funding freezes and the ideological research reviews.A new issue of Health Affairs Scholar argues the conversation around healthcare can change – and radically – if academics think “bigger” and policymakers invest in their
  
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• Ministers urged to act as thousands more hit by UK carer’s allowance debts

  21-03-2025 06:00
  
  Latest overpayment figures bring total number falling foul of ‘cliff-edge’ rules on earnings to 144,000More than 9,000 unpaid carers looking after ill and disabled loved ones have become the latest to be hit with carer’s allowance overpayment debts in the past year, prompting calls for ministers to suspend the controversial practice.While the government has promised to tackle the carer’s allowance scandal and launched a review, the latest figures show carers continue to b
  
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• Social care sector faces collapse as NICs and wage rises loom, providers warn

  20-03-2025 08:00
  
  Independent care providers say the government’s planned increases will push many to the brinkA day on the frontline of England’s social care crisis – Politics Weekly UKThe adult social care sector could collapse “in a matter of months” when the government’s rise in national insurance contributions (NICs) and the national living wage (NLW) comes in from April, providers have warned.Thousands of elderly and vulnerable adults rely on social care services that are
  
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• A day on the frontline of England’s social care crisis – Politics Weekly UK

  20-03-2025 06:00
  
  An ageing population, a funding squeeze and a recruitment crisis have taken England’s adult social care system to breaking point. This week, John Harris is in Greater Manchester to find out what a day in the life of a care worker looks like, and whether it is too late to save this vital serviceWe know that not everyone can afford to pay for the news right now, but if you can, please choose to support the Guardian at http://theguardian.com/politicspod Continue reading...
  
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• My late husband’s care home owes me £10,000 and won’t pay

  18-03-2025 09:30
  The council took over the costs for his care and sent the provider a refund for five months of fees I’d paid. But it isn’t passing it onCan you help me get £10,000 owed to me by the care home provider Leicestershire County Care?My husband was resident in one of their care homes before he died in June last year. Because our savings had dropped below the ­government threshold for self-funded care, the local authority had agreed to pay the £5,000-a-month cost. However, b
  
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• Flawed UK visa scheme led to ‘horrific’ care worker abuse, says watchdog

  16-03-2025 11:00
  
  Anti-slavery commissioner says scheme to plug staffing gaps post-Brexit was a ‘blunt instrument’ that enabled exploitation of the vulnerableA post-Brexit visa scheme to fill vacancies in social care was badly designed and enabled “horrific” abuse of migrant workers, the UK’s anti-slavery watchdog has said.Commissioner Eleanor Lyons said the care worker visa route introduced by the Conservatives in February 2022 had caused avoidable harm and “some really severe
  
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• Ministers delaying inquiry into treatment of migrant carers, RCN says

  07-03-2025 08:00
  
  Exclusive: Nursing union says it continues to receive complaints about low pay, unfit housing and illegal feesMinisters are dragging their heels on an investigation into the mistreatment of migrant carers, the country’s largest nursing union has said, as it continues to receive complaints about low pay, substandard accommodation and illegal fees.Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, has written to Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to urge her to speed up he
  
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• The Guardian view on Labour and the NHS: there is no miracle cure for a struggling health system | Editorial

  03-03-2025 19:25
  
  Wes Streeting is building a team of reformers, but ingrained weaknesses in the health service will be hard to fixSpeaking to MPs last week, Dr Penny Dash quoted the Guardian’s description of her as a reforming zealot. Dr Dash is less zealous than she used to be, she said, and better at listening. But the doctor and management consultant, who has just been appointed chair of NHS England, has lost none of her determination to make the health service better and more productive.How this b
  
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• ‘I visit and his face lights up’: caring for West Yorkshire’s ageing population – photo essay

  28-02-2025 08:00
  
  Photographer Graeme Robertson has been spending time with elderly people supported by Age UK. Programme manager Brenda Wardle describes how she supports people around Wakefield amid a crisis in social careIn the years I have worked for Age UK, I’ve found there is always more to do, always someone else to help, and even with double the staff we could only scratch the surface.Brenda Wardle, Age UK Continue reading...
  
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• Almost half of England’s councils ‘could face bankruptcy over £4.6bn deficit’

  28-02-2025 07:00
  
  Damning National Audit Office report says action is needed to address deficit accumulated under Tory-era policyAlmost half of councils in England risk falling into bankruptcy without action to address a £4.6bn deficit amassed under a Conservative-era policy, the government’s spending watchdog has warned.In a damning report, the National Audit Office said that rising pressure on public services and repeated delays to reform the funding of local government meant town halls were in an &
  
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• ‘I’m still dancing’: Derbyshire woman has 105th birthday rave at care home

  27-02-2025 07:00
  
  Hilda Jackson and fellow residents partied with strobe lights, glowsticks and drum’n’bass from festival-headlinerIt was a birthday party that would do even the most seasoned raver proud, with strobe lighting, glow sticks and a headline act who has played some of the biggest festivals in the UK.The birthday girl sipped on champagne, while guests helped themselves to free-flowing cocktails from a pop-up bar run by Jägermeister. This was not an Instagram influencer’s Ibiza po
  
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• Mother had carer’s allowance stopped while with disabled daughter in hospital

  27-02-2025 06:00
  
  Rachel Adam-Smith says stopping benefits when loved ones are in hospital fails to recognise carers’ ongoing roleThe mother of a severely disabled young woman was left in financial hardship after her carer’s allowance was wrongly stopped while her daughter was seriously ill in hospital.Rachel Adam-Smith, 48, spent five weeks in hospital alongside her 22-year-old daughter who was being treated for severe gastrointestinal issues last month. Continue reading...
  
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• Care home throws 'rave' for resident's 105th birthday – video

  26-02-2025 13:13
  
  'I’ve had a wonderful time. The people here are wonderful and I think we’ve had a really good time,' said Hilda Jackson, her face decorated with UV rave paint, after the party held at Holbrook Hall residential home in Derbyshire. Jackson, who has lived at Holbrook Hall for about two-and-a-half years, attributes her long life to being dealt a good hand with her health – and to her love of dancing Continue reading...
  
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• Thousands of children in England suffered faith-based abuse in past decade

  24-02-2025 13:17
  Figures that include children accused of witchcraft are highlighted as Kindoki Witch Boy film tells true story of boy who underwent an exorcismThousands of children in England have been subject to abuse relating to faith or belief over the past decade, according to figures highlighted ahead of a film released on Monday.Faith-based abuse is a worldwide phenomenon but since April 2018 experts found 14,000 social work assessments in this category, which includes harm caused by belief in witchcraft
  
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• Thousands of children in England accused of witchcraft in past decade

  24-02-2025 13:17
  
  Figures emerge as Kindoki Witch Boy film tells true story of Mardoche Yembi who underwent an exorcism as a childThousands of children in England have been accused of witchcraft over the past decade, according to new figures that come alongside a film released on Monday.Faith-based abuse is a worldwide phenomenon but experts found 14,000 social work assessments linked to witchcraft accusations since 2015. In the year running to March 2024 alone, there were 2,180 assessments linked to witchcraft.C
  
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• Migrant health and care workers deserve better than this | Letters

  23-02-2025 18:42
  
  Readers respond to an article by John Harris in which he reflects on a ‘bitter absurdity’ at the heart of British lifeJohn Harris’s article mentions the March 2024 rules banning new migrant care workers from bringing dependants (In an NHS ward I saw how Britain relies on immigrants. Yet still we tell them they’re not wanted, 16 February).Less well known is that thousands of health and care workers who arrived before this date have also been prevented from bringing their c
  
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• What I learned from a lovely woman on a packed ward in hospital | Zoe Williams

  18-02-2025 12:00
  
  Healthy people are being forced to stay in hospital because of a lack of social care – and it’s an indictment of our current systemPoliticians talk constantly about the crisis in social care, and the pressure it puts on the NHS, so that the words just turn into a hum. Then you brush against that in real life and think why is anyone, with any kind of authority over anything, doing any activity that isn’t sorting out social care?My mum has been in hospital, on a ward with five ot
  
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• The Guardian view on the care experience: looked-after children and care leavers must be heard | Editorial

  17-02-2025 19:25
  
  The increased visibility of people whose lives have been shaped by social services is a change for the betterSelect committee hearings typically involve experts answering questions from MPs. Last week there was a strikingly different session, as four care-experienced young people offered their perspectives to the education committee. The point was to increase MPs’ insight by confronting them with children for whom social care is a hugely important fact of life.Some of the material sha
  
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• In an NHS ward I saw how Britain relies on immigrants. Yet still we tell them they’re not wanted | John Harris

  16-02-2025 14:04
  
  My dad’s journey through the health and social care systems proves what politicians secretly know: we’ll be lost if they succeed in ‘sending them home’One bitter absurdity now sits at the heart of British life. It centres on the NHS, our strained systems of social care and an ever-more toxic and hateful conversation about immigration. Without hundreds of thousands of people who have come to the UK from abroad, the most basic aspects of how we look after old, infirm and il
  
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• Unpaid carer wins overpayment penalty case against DWP

  12-02-2025 07:00
  
  Andrea Tucker has overturned the demand for £4,600 in carer’s allowance overpayments for alleged breaches in benefit rulesUnpaid carer Andrea Tucker has won a legal victory against the Department for Work and Pensions, overturning its demand she repay £4,600 for alleged breaches in benefit rules.Tucker, a part-time charity shop worker who until recently cared full-time for her elderly mother, said the tribunal ruling had left her “stunned and relieved” after months
  
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• Migrant workers in UK to fill care roles ‘charged up to £20,000’ in illegal fees

  11-02-2025 01:01
  
  Survey by Unison finds people on health and care worker visas also having to share beds and sleep roughMigrant workers who come to the UK to bolster the country’s care system are having to share beds, sleep rough, and are in some cases being charged more than £20,000 in illegal fees, according to research.A survey of more than 3,000 people who have travelled to the UK on health and care worker visas found that just under a quarter had paid fees to their employer or an intermediary up
  
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• Unpaid carer to challenge DWP allowance overpayment penalty in court

  10-02-2025 07:00
  
  ‘It takes the little people to stand up,’ says Andrea Tucker, who was told to repay £4,600 after caring for mother for 15 yearsAn unpaid carer is to challenge in the courts an “unfair and nonsensical” demand by welfare officials to repay £4,600 in carer’s allowance overpayments, five years after being advised by the same department she was following benefit rules correctly.Andrea Tucker, a part-time charity shop worker who cared full-time for her mother
  
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• Proper care for people who are struggling isn’t ‘soft’ – it saves cash | Phillip Inman

  08-02-2025 17:00
  New research suggests that spending on those with the most complex needs can release so much financial benefit that it should be regarded as an investmentOne of the reasons Rachel Reeves wants faster growth is the taxes it generates and the possibility of spending them to refurbish the public sector.It’s troubling that, seven months on from last July’s election victory, Labour is still struggling to piece together a coherent answer to the question: where should the government direct
  
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• DWP ‘blocked whistleblower giving evidence to carer’s allowance review’

  03-02-2025 07:00
  
  Staffer told by official it would be inappropriate for him to give evidence to review of scandal-hit benefitThe Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of blocking a whistleblower who repeatedly raised the alarm about carer’s allowance from giving evidence to an independent review of the scandal-hit benefit.The DWP staffer was told by a senior official it was inappropriate to share with the review their knowledge of the inner workings of a system that has become notorious for its
  
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• One in four children in England need social care services by 18, study reveals

  01-02-2025 17:53
  
  New research shows scale of crisis, sparking fears over impact of poverty and funding cuts on young peopleOne in four children in England need social care services by the time they turn 18, a study has found, sparking warnings about the impact of poverty and funding cuts.New research led by academics at University College London (UCL) could dramatically change the government’s understanding of how many children require state support. Officials currently rely on snapshot studies that show a
  
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• Judge who returned Sara Sharif to care of murderer father can be named

  31-01-2025 13:40
  Appeal court rules that Mr Justice Williams was misguided and wrong to anonymise three judges connected to caseThe judge who decided that Sara Sharif should live with her father, who went on to kill her, can be named after a court of appeal ruling.Urfan Sharif and his wife, Beinash Batool, murdered Sara in August 2023, less than four years after the designated family judge for Surrey made the decision. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It’s a job, and a tough one’: the pain and privilege of being a millennial caregiver

  28-01-2025 13:00
  Andrew, 33, cares full-time for his grandmother Elo, who has vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s. Isadora Kosofsky spent four years documenting their relationshipOn a Sunday afternoon in October, Andrew Rahal locked his grandmother Elo’s wheelchair in place – “click it or ticket”, he told her – before heating up a bowl of borscht from the Armenian grocery store near their home in Granada Hills, California. He then sat in front of her, patiently feeding her spoon
  
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• A reader with a terminal illness emailed in despair. What she told me should shock us all | Frances Ryan

  28-01-2025 07:00
  
  Rosy is unable to move, breathe or eat unassisted. Yet NHS assessors think it’s fine to leave her alone for hours at a timeLast September, I received an email from a reader called Rosy. At just 53, motor neurone disease meant Rosy was losing her body as she knew it, piece by piece. Previously an assistant librarian at the University of Portsmouth, she was now struggling to hold a book. Too weak to breathe easily, she was reliant on a ventilator at night. In the two-bedroom house Rosy share
  
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• Tell us: have you been threatened with ‘eviction’ from a specialist care home?

  27-01-2025 15:46
  
  We’d like to hear from people or anyone in their family who has been ‘evicted’ from a care home providing specialist care for vulnerable adults due to funding cutsResidential homes providing specialist care to thousands of vulnerable adults with learning disabilities and severe autism have warned they are having to “evict” residents to avoid insolvency because of tax and wage rises and local authority funding cuts.The annual Sector Pulse Check survey of more than 20
  
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• How disabled adults are sidelined by social care | Letters

  26-01-2025 18:18
  
  Charging people on benefits for care in their homes causes real financial hardship, writes Claire Bolderson, while Jill Souter worries for the future of the charity that cares for her daughter. Plus, letters from Ray Downing and John BeerJohn Harris is right about the lack of attention given to working-age adults with disabilities in discussions about the reform of social care (Shut away and ignored: thousands of disabled adults are at the frontier of the human rights struggle, 19 January). Howe
  
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• ‘I can’t sleep, I’m terrified’: the rise in mothers having their babies taken away within days of giving birth in England

  25-01-2025 17:39
  
  Charity finds ‘inhumane’ system is forcing women to defend themselves in court, sometimes from their hospital beds, while in fear of having their newborn child taken from themElla* gave birth to her daughter in a London hospital last week. Days later, still in the same busy ­hospital, she appeared via a laptop in a court hearing, challenging an emergency order from the council, which wants to take her baby into care.“I’m not eating properly. I can’t sleep becaus
  
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• Inquest exposes poor leadership, insufficient testing at aged care home that saw 19 Covid deaths in 2020

  24-01-2025 03:46
  
  Deadly wave of Covid that hit Sydney’s Newmarch House made more severe by organisational failings, coroner saysGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSome of the 19 deaths during a 2020 Covid-19 outbreak at a NSW aged-care home could have been avoided had proper testing for the virus been implemented, a coronial inquest has found.Poor leadership, insufficient communication and staff shortages were highlighted in coroner Derek Lee’s review of the deaths from a wave
  
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• It’s easy to label violence like the Southport attack as terrorism. I’m afraid the truth is more complex | Samira Shackle

  23-01-2025 09:00
  
  Axel Rudakubana’s case isn’t just about how his crime is defined – but the failures of a hollowed-out social care and justice systemAmid the chaos of rioting and misinformation that followed the Southport attack last summer, the abject horror of the crime itself almost seemed to recede: the murder of three little girls, and the attempted murder of eight others and two adults. This horror is clearly back in view this week – with a new scrutiny on all the missed opportuniti
  
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• Shut away and ignored: thousands of disabled adults are at the frontier of the human rights struggle | John Harris

  19-01-2025 15:06
  
  When you attend your local choir or yoga class, just stop and think – where are the disabled adults?In what passes for the national conversation, our social care crisis tends to be reduced to a handful of factors so familiar they now feel like cliches. Just about all of them are centred on older people, the pressures on financially broken local councils from an ageing society and people having to sell their homes to pay for residential care. All these things, of course, are urgent and huge
  
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• Is this the way to fix social care in England?

  19-01-2025 11:00
  As yet another review is launched, a single council is offering an alternative to rationing support for the most needyFlorence Mahon spent a decade running around after peers at the House of Lords. As head housekeeper, she was responsible for problems such as cleaning up messes or sorting out broken lamps, until ill-health forced her to retire in her 50s.Her eyes gleam a little as she talks about which of their lordships she liked and which ones she didn’t. “I didn’t want to go
  
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• Police fear ‘rightwing driven’ reaction to grooming gangs will harm victims

  17-01-2025 19:33
  
  Senior officers say fraction of child abuse cases relate to gangs and funding could be diverted from current casesSenior police officers fear that government pressure to reinvestigate closed historic cases of gang grooming could make it harder to catch those targeting children today.The government on Thursday announced more reviews of past cases and also that victims, whose cases did not end in prosecutions, will be given a new right of appeal to have their investigations reopened. Continue read
  
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• Starmer urged to prioritise child sexual exploitation victims

  17-01-2025 09:58
  
  Charities and experts call for national conversation to move away from sensationalism after Musk criticismKeir Starmer must move the conversation on child sexual exploitation away from sensationalism to support for victims who have had help and protection reduced in recent years, charities, campaigners and experts have said.A joint statement, whose signatories include government services contractors such as the Salvation Army and the Snowdrop Project, says changes in the law have made it harder
  
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• Parental mental health biggest cause of child protection referrals in England

  15-01-2025 06:00
  
  Public service cuts and ‘stark impact of poverty’ are causing worse outcomes for children, according to surveyPoor parental mental health has overtaken domestic violence as the most commonly reported factor in social worker assessments into whether a child is at risk of serious harm or neglect, according to new research.Growing rates of mental illness – in both parents and children – were an increasingly important driver of child safeguarding interventions in England, the
  
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• Charities forced to ‘evict’ adults in their care to stay solvent, survey finds

  14-01-2025 01:01
  
  Annual sector review says tax and wage rises and council funding cuts have left services in ‘state of acute precarity’ Charities providing specialist care to thousands of vulnerable adults with learning disabilities and severe autism are having to “evict” residents to avoid insolvency because of tax and wage rises and local authority funding cuts.Non-profit providers say their work is in a “state of acute precarity” with many preparing to cut services, close d
  
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• UK officials urged to act ‘months ago’ on child sexual abuse inquiry’s demands

  12-01-2025 08:00
  
  Campaigners claim no progress made with government on implementing recommendations until Elon Musk rowCampaigners met government officials months ago to urge them to implement recommendations from the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales, but said no progress had been made until recent days.One campaigner who was present at the meeting with Home Office officials in September to ask why the recommendations had not been implemented accused the government of a &l
  
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• Dementia care reform won’t wait

  12-01-2025 07:00
  One in three people born today will develop the disease, meaning pressures will become ever more acuteI agree with Sonia Sodha that there are risks to doing nothing on social care (“Labour had plenty of time to ponder social care. Now it has a chance to deliver”, Comment). Dementia is the biggest health and social care challenge of our time but the current system is not set up to meet the needs of almost 1 million people living with dementia in the UK.We welcome the announcement of a
  
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• Tory and Reform MPs accused of ‘weaponising trauma’ of grooming victims, as Farage calls for inquiry to focus on Pakistani men – as it happened

  08-01-2025 19:12
  
  Prime minister told Commons any new inquiry into child abuse would delay progress however spokesperson says he has not ruled one outReform UK has also tabled a reasoned amendment to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill motion tonight. It says:That this house declines to give a second reading to the children’s wellbeing and schools bill because the secretary of state for the Home Department has not launched a UK-wide public inquiry into grooming gangs and has not committed to upd
  
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• The care taskforce needs boldness, not buzzwords | Letters

  08-01-2025 18:46
  Wes Streeting is wrong to frame social care as a burden on the NHS , writes Dr Melanie Henwood. Plus letters from Dr Marion Witton and Mike Smith.The announcement of a new commission on social care has been met with an audible sigh from commentators, family carers and people needing care and support (Ministers plan biggest shake-up of adult social care in England for decades, 3 January). We’ve all been here before, built up expectations of reform and dared to hope things would change, only
  
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• ‘Get this done’: Andrew Dilnot attacks three-year plan for English social care

  08-01-2025 15:56
  
  Architect of previous attempts at reform says government could announce what it wants to do by end of 2025 UK politics live – latest updatesDowning Street’s plan to spend three years preparing a blueprint to overhaul England’s social care is “inappropriate” given the urgency of the crisis facing frail, ill and disabled people, a leading care expert has told MPs.Sir Andrew Dilnot, the architect of previous government-commissioned attempts to reform adult social care
  
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