Care news

• ‘Free and impartial’ addiction helplines paid secret commission by rehabs

  22-12-2024 08:00
  
  Advertising regulator reprimands services that claim to offer unbiased advice but then direct people to partner facilitiesHelplines that claim to offer “free” and “impartial” addiction support have been reprimanded by the advertising watchdog for hiding the fact they are paid thousands in commission by private rehabilitation clinics.Amid record drug death rates and high demand for services, one website is promising “free, impartial, expert” advice for those tr
  
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• Sara Sharif told social worker ‘they don’t hit me’ four years before her murder

  21-12-2024 06:00
  
  When she was six, Sara complained that her mother hit her, but that her father and stepmother, who were convicted of her murder, didn’tSara Sharif told a social worker she felt safe living with her father and stepmother because “they don’t hit me”, four years before she died from their brutal campaign of torture.The schoolgirl’s haunting words are buried in hundreds of pages of private family court papers that were disclosed after an application by media organisatio
  
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• Breaking the social care reform logjam | Letters

  20-12-2024 18:49
  
  Cross-party buy-in is essential. This cannot be a government-only solution, writes Paul BurstowThe “deep reform” that social care needs (Editorial, 3 December) must break the cycle of short-term fixes and insufficient funding, which leaves the sector in a perpetual state of uncertainty – forever playing the role of Oliver Twist asking for more, yet lacking long-term security.A better-funded version of the current system won’t suffice to address the profound demographic, s
  
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• These women lost their children because they were lesbians – why can’t the government say sorry? | Sophie Wilkinson

  18-12-2024 13:00
  
  As late as the 1990s, the law sided with fathers over custody on the basis of a woman’s sexuality. I detailed the scandal for Radio 4,and was shocked at the cruelty involvedI am more than just aware of the faint outlines of queer history – it is something I see in Technicolour. I immerse myself in lesbian books, films and art, and have written all sorts of articles about contemporary lesbianism. It is for this reason that I was shocked to learn only recently of the state having remov
  
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• Judge in Sara Sharif case warns of ‘dangers’ of automatic right to home school children

  17-12-2024 19:00
  
  Judge says killers home schooled Sara as a ‘ruse’ to hide evidence of 10-year-old’s repeated beatings A senior judge who jailed the killers of Sara Sharif has said the 10-year-old’s murder “starkly illustrates the dangers” of parents automatically being able to homeschool their children.Sara had twice been pulled out of school by her father, Urfan Sharif, and stepmother, Beinash Batool, as a “ruse adopted for wholly selfish purposes” to cover up ev
  
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• Home schooling laws to be tightened up after murder of Sara Sharif

  17-12-2024 01:01
  
  Ten-year-old was murdered by her father and stepmother after being taken out of school to be educated at homeMeasures to tighten up home schooling in England in the wake of 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s murder at the hands of her father and stepmother are to be unveiled in a bill before parliament on Tuesday.The children’s wellbeing and schools bill will enable the government to introduce registers to identify and keep track of children not in school, while parents seeking to educate the
  
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• Why do we keep failing abused children like Sara Sharif? | Letters

  16-12-2024 18:50
  
  Readers on the death of the 10-year-old girl at the hands of her father and stepmother and the grave weaknesses in the child protection system The death of Sara Sharif yet again highlights failures to properly assess risk and protect children (What were the missed chances to prevent Sara Sharif’s death?, 11 December). But what will we learn from it? How depressing to read the statement of the children’s commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, which says: “We can have no more
  
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• Sara Sharif’s grandfather vows to keep her siblings in Pakistan as vigil is held

  15-12-2024 23:44
  
  Muhammed Sharif goes to high court in Lahore and says ‘safest place’ for his other grandchildren is with himSara Sharif’s grandfather said he will fight to keep her siblings in Pakistan, calling it the “safest place for them”, as a vigil was held for the murdered 10-year-old in Surrey.Muhammad Sharif said he would appeal to the high court in Pakistan to stop Sara’s five siblings from being returned to the UK. Continue reading...
  
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• Sara Sharif’s grandfather vows to keep her siblings in Pakistan as vigil held for murdered girl

  15-12-2024 23:44
  
  Hundreds pay respects to 10-year-old as Muhammed Sharif says ‘safest place’ for his other grandchildren is with himMoves to appeal after court upholds ban on naming judges who presided over Sara Sharif hearingsSara Sharif’s grandfather said he will fight to keep her siblings in Pakistan, calling it the “safest place for them”, as a vigil was held for the murdered 10-year-old in Surrey.Muhammad Sharif said he would appeal to the high court in Pakistan to stop Sara&rs
  
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• At last, a group of MPs intent on reforming our madly unfair council tax | Heather Stewart

  15-12-2024 14:15
  The system relies on valuations from 1991, when Gorbachev was in power, but has become politically untouchable“It’s a fairness thing. Just the idea that somebody sitting in a two-bedroom house in Hartlepool is paying more council tax than somebody who’s living in a mansion – it’s just offensive.”The Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash, Hartlepool’s MP, is on a mission to draw attention to an issue he jokingly calls “the third rail of British politics
  
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• Inexperienced social worker did not identify Sara Sharif’s father as posing any risk

  14-12-2024 20:18
  
  The murdered girl had been allowed to live with her father, who had repeatedly attracted the attention of police and social workers• Moves to appeal after court upholds ban on naming judges who presided over Sara Sharif hearingsAn inexperienced social worker tasked by a local authority with assessing Sara Sharif’s parents did not identify her father as posing any risk despite noting safeguarding concerns.The social worker’s report, described as “very thorough”, was s
  
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• Down by the sea: poverty brings Blackpool life expectancy to UK low

  09-12-2024 07:00
  Resort town struggles with squalid housing, poor nutrition for children and now, statistics show, earlier deathsIt is a league table that no one wants to top. For the first time in 20 years, Blackpool, a once-glamorous seaside resort, this week overtook Glasgow to have the lowest average male life expectancy in the UK.Men born in Blackpool will now live until just after their 73rd birthday on average, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) study, six years less than the average in
  
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• Labour needs the will to solve social care crisis | Letters

  08-12-2024 18:16
  
  A free adult social care system modelled on one already in operation in a London borough is achievable, according to Sally Powell and Stephen Burke. Plus a letter from John Ransford A royal commission on the future of social care (Editorial, 3 December) would be yet another example of how successive governments have kicked the care can further down the road. Older and disabled people, and their families, are desperate for the government to sort out the care crisis once and for all. With its larg
  
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• Teresa Smith obituary

  08-12-2024 11:36
  
  My wife, Teresa Collingwood Smith, has died after a short illness, aged 82. Like her father, RG Collingwood, a philosopher and archaeologist, and her grandfather, WG Collingwood, an artist, writer and secretary to John Ruskin, Teresa is hard to pigeonhole. She was a successful Oxford academic, and also an experienced community organiser and activist with the ability to act as a catalyst for others.From an early age, Teresa, her mother Kate (nee Edwardes), and grandmother, lived with another fami
  
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• The Guardian view on social care: reformers must reclaim the initiative | Editorial

  03-12-2024 19:43
  Labour pledged ‘deep reform’ of this flawed and complex system. A royal commission could shape a consensusThe sooner the government brings forward social care proposals the better. The lack of further detail about a manifesto commitment to “deep reform” has been a disappointment of Labour’s first months in office. Assisted dying and palliative care are a largely separate issue, relating to the last six months of life rather than the long-term (and sometimes lifelong
  
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• Only proper funding can rescue social care | Letters

  01-12-2024 17:49
  
  Inadequate funding of adult social care in England has a harmful knock-on effect on the NHS, writes Laura DaviesThe Nuffield Trust’s warning that parts of the adult social care market in England could collapse is a stark reminder of the challenges facing the sector (Large parts of adult social care market in England face collapse, thinktank warns, 22 November).Recent national insurance and minimum wage increases, which the thinktank said could drive costs up by £2.8bn for private and
  
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• The Observer view on the disturbing prevalence of child sexual abuse in the home | Observer editorial

  30-11-2024 20:00
  
  The idea of children being abused within their family is too upsetting for adults to contemplate. But we must‘I wanted them all to notice.” This is the title of a new report on protecting children from sexual abuse within the family, taken from an interview with a child who was sexually abused and failed by the agencies that should have protected them. The report by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (CSPRP) reviewed 136 cases of serious child sexual abuse from between 2018
  
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• Janie Thomas obituary

  26-11-2024 18:40
  My mother, Janie Thomas, a social worker and lecturer, who has died aged 95, became a leading light in the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), of which she was president from 1984 to 1986.She began her career in 1955 at St George’s hospital, central London, before working with children and families at the London county council (LCC) and then the borough of Tower Hamlets. In 1964 she switched into academia, lecturing in social work at the London School of Economics (LSE) for more
  
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• Safeguarding agencies ‘ignoring children abused by family members’ in England

  26-11-2024 01:01
  
  ‘Worrying evaporation’ in skills among professionals meant to protect victims of intrafamilial sexual abuse, report saysSafeguarding agencies are failing to listen to children who have been sexually abused by family members with devastating consequences, amid a “worrying evaporation” of skills among the professionals meant to protect them, a report has found.A review of the experiences of 193 children in England who were victims of sexual abuse by a family member found se
  
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• More foster carers in England leaving than signing up, says Ofsted report

  24-11-2024 08:00
  
  Children’s campaigners say ‘national crisis’ adds to trauma for vulnerable young people, amid huge fall in numbers fosteringThe number of foster carers in England has sunk to a 10-year low, prompting urgent calls for the recruitment of thousands more families, improved retention and moves to tackle a “national crisis” that is exacerbating trauma for the most vulnerable children in society.The latest figures produced by Ofsted show the number of foster carers fell fr
  
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• Large parts of adult social care market in England face collapse, thinktank warns

  21-11-2024 18:43
  
  Sector will have extra £2.8bn cost burden from April due to tax and wage rises announced in budget, says Nuffield TrustLarge parts of England’s adult social care market face collapse as a result of tax and wage rises announced in the budget, with devastating consequences for vulnerable and older people who rely on care services, a leading thinktank has warned.The Nuffield Trust said that while the government has consistently spoken of its long term ambition to reform the social care
  
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• When social care is put in private hands | Letters

  21-11-2024 17:59
  
  John Burton on the overhaul of children’s social care, and Janet Maitland on how chronic underfunding has tainted assessments of people’s needsAs someone who has worked in children’s homes since the 1960s and who is part of a community of people who have experience of generally good children’s homes, I don’t expect the government’s proposed reforms will have the desired effect (Overhaul of children’s social care in England will crack down on firms’
  
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• Public’s understanding of paedophiles has not improved, says charity boss

  19-11-2024 16:00
  
  Rev Harry Nigh, who set up Circles in 1994 to support sex offenders, says it is easy for politicians to say ‘lock them up’Public understanding of paedophiles has not improved over the past 30 years, according to the founder of the pioneering charity Circles, which offers support to some of society’s most reviled offenders.While the Rev Harry Nigh says child protection must always be paramount, he stresses the importance of breaking the isolation and shame that often leads peopl
  
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• Keir Starmer says he wants ‘serious and pragmatic’ relationship with China – as it happened

  18-11-2024 20:14
  
  Prime minister says he wants to ‘be clear about issues we do not agree on’ after meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping at G20Keir Starmer has held his bilateral with Xi Jinping in Rio at the G20, offering to meet his counterpart, the Chinese premier Li Qiang, in Beijing or London at the earliest opportunity.But the PM also raised human rights issues with Xi, including the sanctions on parliamentarians and the persecution of Hong Kong and British citizen Jimmy Lai.A strong UK China rel
  
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• The Guardian view on children’s homes: cap profits and don’t stop there | Editorial

  18-11-2024 20:05
  Private sector reform is overdue, but councils need funding if young people are to have the chances they deserveCurbs on profiteering in the children’s social care sector cannot come soon enough. It is getting on for three years since the Competition and Markets Authority found that children’s home owners in England, Scotland and Wales were making excessive profits while carrying too much debt – exposing children and councils to unacceptable risks. Of all the failed experiments
  
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• Keir Starmer says he wants ‘serious and pragmatic’ relationship with China – UK politics live

  18-11-2024 20:00
  
  Prime minister says he wants to ‘be clear about issues we do not agree on’ after meeting Chinese president Xi Jinping at G20Keir Starmer has held his bilateral with Xi Jinping in Rio at the G20, offering to meet his counterpart, the Chinese premier Li Qiang, in Beijing or London at the earliest opportunity.But the PM also raised human rights issues with Xi, including the sanctions on parliamentarians and the persecution of Hong Kong and British citizen Jimmy Lai.A strong UK China rel
  
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• Overhaul of children’s social care in England will crack down on firms’ profiteering

  18-11-2024 01:01
  
  Government says wide-ranging reforms will end ‘neglect’ in system that leaves young people behindLabour ready to show it is serious about changing children’s social careExcessive profiteering by unscrupulous private companies charging sky-high fees for substandard placements for vulnerable children will be clamped down on as part of a major overhaul of children’s social care in England.The government will on Monday outline a wide-ranging package of changes, which it promi
  
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• Labour ready to show it is serious about child social care reform

  18-11-2024 01:01
  Details are still lacking, but initial suggestion is that many of the MacAlister report’s findings will be enactedTwo years ago a government-commissioned report laid bare the crisis affecting children’s social care in England and called for an urgent multibillion-pound overhaul to reform a system that it said was spiralling out of control.The author of the report, Josh MacAlister, warned that a continued failure to tackle major problems in children’s services would lead to reco
  
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• ‘I’m not saying I’m not scarred. But scars do fade’: Baroness Lola Young on her childhood in care

  17-11-2024 12:00
  The crossbench peer grew up in care and went on to become an actor, an academic and one of the first black women in the House of Lords. Now she has written a memoir documenting her remarkable storyIn March 2012, Lola Young, who sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, clambered on to the rush-hour bus that would take her from the children’s social care office in Islington, north London, to her home. In her arms was a box: a collection of papers she was so anxious to open she did it
  
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• Improving social care is a big task and these talks are a good place to start | Heather Stewart

  17-11-2024 11:36
  Productivity and quality in a sector that is its workforce will require even more money after national insurance risesKemi Badenoch’s second go at prime minister’s questions last Wednesday was judged a flop at Westminster but she did draw attention to one genuine issue: the impact of the national insurance rise for social care.It is 14 years since the Tories sank Andy Burnham’s plan for a “death tax” to fund social care. Over that time, as demand has continued to ri
  
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• Cover-up of child abuse in Church of England tried to ‘protect the work’ of twisted theology | Helen King

  17-11-2024 11:00
  It’s difficult to face the fact that those who call themselves Christian can abuse, and hard to believe anyone thought silence was the right responseIt has been an unprecedented 10 days for the Church of England. The Makin report into abuse by John Smyth, barrister and Church lay reader, was leaked and landed a week ahead of its scheduled date, but still more than four years behind the original timetable.Much of the content is familiar to anyone who read Andrew Graystone’s 2021 book
  
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• Fears grow over UK children at risk placed in illegal care homes

  16-11-2024 20:00
  Rising number of vulnerable youngsters are being forced into unsuitable accommodation including Airbnbs, bedsits and caravansA shocking increase in the number of vulnerable children deprived of their liberty by the state is leaving more youngsters in illegal accommodation, at eye-watering costs to the taxpayer, a government-backed assessment has warned.The children include a young woman who was physically sat on for an entire day by staff trying to restrain her and a severely disabled child whos
  
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• Fears grow over children at risk placed in illegal care homes

  16-11-2024 20:00
  
  Rising number of vulnerable youngsters in England are being forced into unsuitable accommodation including Airbnbs, bedsits and caravansA shocking increase in the number of vulnerable children deprived of their liberty by the state is leaving more youngsters in illegal accommodation, at eye-watering costs to the taxpayer, a government-backed assessment has warned.The children include a young woman who was physically sat on for an entire day by staff trying to restrain her and a severely disabled
  
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• UK’s unhealthy food habits cost £268bn a year, report finds

  15-11-2024 20:24
  
  Exclusive: Food, Farming and Countryside Commission added up cost to NHS and economy of diet-linked diseaseThe UK’s growing addiction to unhealthy food costs £268bn a year, far outstripping the budget for the whole NHS, the first research into the subject has found.The increased consumption of foods high in fat, salt and sugar or which have been highly processed is having a “devastating” impact on human health and Britain’s finances.The market in ultra-processed foo
  
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• Killing Time by Alan Bennett review – a cut above

  13-11-2024 10:00
  
  From afternoon sherry to sex with the handyman in the lawnmower shed, Alan Bennett takes a wry look at lockdown life in a care homeBack in 2020, with the country in lockdown, the BBC commissioned updated versions of Alan Bennett’s consummate Talking Heads, originally broadcast in 1988. Ten of the 12 monologues were remade with a new A-list of British actors that included Kristin Scott Thomas, Lesley Manville and Martin Freeman reprising roles played first time around by Eileen Atkins, Magg
  
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• Rise in NICs will endanger public health services | Letter

  12-11-2024 17:22
  
  While the NHS has been given an exemption to the NIC increase, health services commissioned outside the health service have not, says Greg FellYour article outlining the extra strain on council budgets that the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) will cause highlighted the likely impact on adult and children’s social care services (Adult social care in England needs urgent help from ministers, say bosses, theguardian.com, 6 November).There will also be a s
  
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• Licences granted to nearly 200 UK care providers despite labour law violations

  12-11-2024 06:00
  
  Exclusive: Study finds evidence of major gaps in government oversight of foreign workers in care sectorNearly 200 care providers have been given government licences to bring foreign nurses to the UK despite having previously violated labour laws, according to a study that highlights widespread employment problems in the social care sector.The report by the Work Rights Centre shows 177 companies in England have been given licences to sponsor carers, even while publicly available information shows
  
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• Bishop calls for Justin Welby to resign over failure to pursue serial abuser

  11-11-2024 14:54
  
  Helen-Ann Hartley says archbishop’s position is untenable as members of Church of England’s ruling body launch petitionA Church of England bishop has added her voice to growing calls for the archbishop of Canterbury to resign over his failure to pursue a sadistic abuser of children when allegations were brought to his attention.Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, said Justin Welby’s position was untenable and he should quit. A line needed to be drawn, she added. Continu
  
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• Government expected to help UK hospices hit by national insurance rise

  10-11-2024 19:00
  
  Financial lifeline could alleviate fears end-of-life services are at risk of closure from tax hike and higher wage billsThe government is likely to offer a financial lifeline to the hospice sector amid fears end-of-life care providers are at risk of closure due to the double blow of the employers’ national insurance rise and higher wage bills, the Guardian understands.Officials have been looking at the options for providing more funding to hospices and other end-of-life care through the NH
  
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• Children taken away from parents due to misreporting of drug tests, say experts

  09-11-2024 15:00
  
  Process for interpreting hair-strand tests can be misleading and carries a risk of racial bias, according to campaigners in England and WalesChildren are at risk of being wrongly removed from their parents’ care by the family courts because drug tests are being misinterpreted, experts have warned.Life-changing decisions about whether a child should be placed in the care of a local authority can sometimes hinge on the outcome of hair-strand tests, designed to show whether a parent has consu
  
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• UK government could miss chance to protect children, says ex-inquiry chair

  08-11-2024 07:00
  
  Alexis Jay says she is still pressing ministers to introduce mandatory reporting of allegations in England and WalesA “once-in-a-lifetime” chance to protect children is at risk of being squandered by the UK government, a leading expert has warned.Prof Alexis Jay, the former chair of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) said she was still pressing Labour ministers for a commitment to introduce her recommendations made at the conclusion of the seven-year inquiry in 2
  
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• Adult social care in England needs urgent help from ministers, say bosses

  06-11-2024 06:00
  Rising costs and demand are a huge strain on council budgets and services face ‘intolerable pressures’, says AdassEngland’s overstretched and creaking adult social care services need urgent government intervention to stabilise them financially as rising costs and demand play havoc with council budgets, care bosses have warned.The financial challenge facing adult social care continued to be “as bad as it has been in recent history”, the Association of Directors of Ad
  
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• Aged care homes star rating system needs transparency overhaul, ombudsman says

  06-11-2024 00:00
  
  Sue, who lost her husband to Parkinson’s disease and dementia, says the rating system left her ‘angry, utterly powerless and disenfranchised’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet ourbreaking news email,free app ordaily news podcastFamilies who feel misled by the federal government’s star rating system for aged care homes have welcomed the commonwealth ombudsman’s call for it to be overhauled.The rating scheme was introduced to help families make
  
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• One Mother review – poignant memoir grapples with trauma of foster care

  05-11-2024 08:00
  
  Mickaël Bandela’s documentary reflects on the events that left him in care as a child, and the generational losses that came beforeWhen he was a few months old, film-maker Mickaël Bandela was put into the care of his foster mother Marie-Thérèse, after his own home was deemed unsuitable for the wellbeing of a small child. Throughout the next decades, his birth mother Gisèle remained a loving presence in his life. At the same time, the erratic infrequency of he
  
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• Union launches charter to protect care workers on sponsored UK visas

  04-11-2024 15:21
  
  Salford council is first signatory to Unison agreement intended to prevent exploitation of migrant workers Care workers from countries such as India, Nigeria and the Philippines who faced losing their immigration status in the UK if they left their employers have been promised new protections by a landmark, grassroots deal.The migrant care workers charter is an agreement designed by care workers and the trade union Unison to prevent the exploitation of people on sponsored visas – and Salfo
  
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• Killing Time by Alan Bennett review – senior moments full of wit and style

  04-11-2024 08:00
  
  The author employs his pitch-perfect repertoire of satirical skills in his first book for five years – a novella about the residents of an upmarket care home during the pandemicAlan Bennett, now 90, hasn’t published anything original in book form for five years. In the meantime – the Covid years and the Johnson years and the Truss month – readers have had to be content with the peerless annual diaries he writes for the London Review of Books, yearly proof that his special
  
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• Push to count ‘sleepovers’ as breaks could lead to 28-hour shifts for Australian care workers, unions warn

  03-11-2024 15:00
  
  Fair Work Commission to hear case brought by business group asking for change to safety net for care industriesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA business push to count “sleepovers” as breaks in care industries could result in “nightmare” 28-hour shifts without penalty rates, unions have warned.This week the Fair Work Commission will hear a case brought by the Australian Industry Group asking it to change the safety net for care industries to cla
  
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• A decade ago, my father suffered alone and in misery. Why do dementia sufferers still face the same fate? | Nicci Gerrard

  03-11-2024 08:30
  
  Launched in the Observer, John’s Campaign aims to give frail people the right to be accompanied by those who love themEveryone has their own special way of grieving. Mine turned my life upside down.On 26 November 2014, two days after the funeral of my father, I sent a slightly unhinged email to the Observer saying there was a piece “I want (need) to write… My very lovely and beloved father died two weeks ago, after a long and distressing time suffering from dementia. He had be
  
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• Services for most-vulnerable people at risk after NICs rise, charities say

  01-11-2024 19:39
  
  Care providers, GPs and pharmacists warn increased costs will cause cuts and job lossesServices that support some of England’s most vulnerable people have warned that tax increases in the budget will lead to cuts and closures that could devastate the charity sector.Although the NHS and councils are protected from the impact of the rise in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) announced in Wednesday’s budget, charities that provide services say the increase means th
  
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• Rachel Reeves has left the social care sector in deep trouble | Letters

  31-10-2024 19:05
  
  Rachael Dodgson of Dimensions says the budget adds to the pressure not-for-profit social care providers already face. Richard Robinson and Andrea Nicholas-Jones of Hourglass call on the chancellor to think againThe budget is alarming for not-for-profit social care providers because it will put us under pressure to meet the increases in tax costs across our workforce. Our initial analysis indicates that the changes to national insurance will cost us £5m next year. In addition to this, the i
  
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