Care news

• ‘Disaster waiting to happen’: Liberal Russell Broadbent lashes governments over aged care

  25-08-2020 12:51
  
  Veteran MP says ‘profit became more important than care’ and federal funding for sector must be boosted The Victorian Liberal Russell Broadbent has fired a broadside about aged care, describing recent events in his home state as a “disaster waiting to happen” and calling on Scott Morrison to boost investment in not-for-profit care.Broadbent resigned from two parliamentary positions in protest against the government’s treatment of aged care in his electorate in 2017,
  
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• Lord Darzi’s report into the NHS is just the start | Letters

  16-09-2024 18:53
  Pete Lavender writes that the NHS doesn’t need more reform, it needs funding, Prof Geeta Nargund says the Darzi review leaves out gynaecological services, while Dr Karl Brennan flags up social care, and Woody Caan staff moraleWhen Tony Blair was elected in 1997, it was on a platform of “saving the NHS”. He assured us that it must change or die. Then followed Labour’s agenda for change, bringing in private healthcare to take some of the burden from a struggling NHS, which
  
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• DWP waives £1,300 penalty for unpaid carer threatened with fraud prosecution

  12-09-2024 18:51
  
  Clemency Jacques is one of 134,500 people repaying £251m in carer’s allowance overpaymentsAn unpaid carer threatened with prosecution for fraud after inadvertently breaching benefit rules has had a £1,300 penalty waived by officials after her case appeared in the Guardian.Clemency Jacques, who cares for her disabled son and elderly mother, said she was given the choice of paying the charge or risking police arrest and a court appearance after running up a £2,600 carer&rsq
  
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• UK politics: No more money for NHS without reform, says Starmer as he outlines vision for health service – as it happened

  12-09-2024 18:48
  
  The prime minister blamed the Tories for ‘breaking’ the NHS and said reform of the service was needed Starmer sets out some of the most negative findings in the report.Take the waiting times in A&A - more than 100,000 infants waited more than six hours last year.And nearly a tenth of all patients are now waiting for 12 hours or more.Even Lord Darzi, with all his years of experience, is shocked by what he discovered. It is unforgivable, and people have every right to be angry. Con
  
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• No more money for NHS without reform, says Starmer as he outlines vision for health service – UK politics live

  12-09-2024 14:43
  The prime minister blamed the Tories for ‘breaking’ the NHS and said reform of the service was needed Starmer sets out some of the most negative findings in the report.Take the waiting times in A&A - more than 100,000 infants waited more than six hours last year.And nearly a tenth of all patients are now waiting for 12 hours or more.Even Lord Darzi, with all his years of experience, is shocked by what he discovered. It is unforgivable, and people have every right to be angry. Con
  
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• Keir Starmer vows to face down ‘loud opposition’ to fix NHS

  12-09-2024 13:21
  
  Prime minister promises 10-year plan after Darzi report concludes health service in a ‘critical condition’UK politics live – latest updatesKeir Starmer has vowed to be bold and face down “loud opposition” to his planned public health measures and NHS reforms after a major inquiry found the health service was “in critical condition”.The prime minister said he was prepared to take “controversial” action to fix the NHS and public health in Engla
  
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• More than a million unpaid UK carers living in poverty, research finds

  12-09-2024 09:38
  Carers UK estimates 600 people a day quit jobs to care for loved ones and calls for review of benefits systemMore than a million unpaid carers in the UK who look after disabled, frail or ill relatives are living in poverty, with one in 10 experiencing such extreme hardship they struggle to afford to eat regularly or heat their homes, new research shows.Campaigners said carers – routinely lauded by politicians as unsung heroes whose sacrifices help prop up the NHS – were paying the pr
  
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• Long NHS delays in England leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths, inquiry finds

  11-09-2024 23:30
  
  Detailed analysis warns Keir Starmer it will take longer than five years to get waiting times back on trackLong delays for hospital, GP and mental health services are leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths and have ruptured “the social contract between the NHS and the people”, an inquiry has concluded.The findings of the study by Lord Ara Darzi, commissioned by Labour when it came to power, will be cited by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, who will on Thursday warn that the NHS
  
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• Woman, 86, told she no longer has to repay £13,000 in benefits in DWP U-turn

  04-09-2024 17:42
  
  Exclusive: Case of Sia Kasparis, who has dementia, had been highlighted in Guardian investigation into unpaid careAn 86-year-old woman with advanced dementia has been told by the government she no longer has to repay a £13,000 benefit debt after her case was highlighted by the Guardian.Sia Kasparis, who is partially blind and has been bed-bound for two years, was ordered to repay the huge sum after officials said she had failed to notify them her son had taken up caring duties. Continue re
  
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• Councils in England draining reserves to stay afloat, leaders say

  04-09-2024 01:01
  
  Survey of 24 city authorities finds two in five plan to sell off assets and reduce servicesLocal authority leaders say they are having to drain their financial reserves to keep services afloat and avoid effective bankruptcy.A survey of the mid-tier group of English city councils, which includes Southampton, Hull, Sunderland and Norwich, found that many that had previously avoided financial difficulties during periods of austerity were close to running out of funds. Continue reading...
  
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• Why social workers had to investigate Kirstie Allsopp case | Letter

  02-09-2024 17:21
  Julia Ross from the British Association of Social Workers says if a referral is made it must be acted on– it is the lawWhat the media coverage on the Kirstie Allsopp story misses is how social work actually works (Kirstie Allsopp reported to social services for allowing son, 15, to travel abroad, 25 August). If a referral is made, it must be acted on when certain criteria are met – it is simply the law. This approach doesn’t discriminate between class or status – it
  
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• Unless Labour wakes up on social care, tragedies will happen | Martin Green, Vic Rayner, Jane Townson and Suhail Mirza

  31-08-2024 19:04
  
  The new government is showing every sign that it intends to ignore the crisis in social care. It has to change course• Social care chiefs sound alarm at Labour’s ‘deafening silence’ on sectorSummertime, 160 years ago. Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to then secretary of war Edwin Stanton, wrote: “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Those words could be applied to a plethora of current, global challenges – climate change, in
  
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• Social care chiefs sound alarm at Labour’s ‘deafening silence’ on sector

  31-08-2024 19:03
  
  Labour accused of dropping pledges after it abandons cap on costs and prepares to scrap care worker training fund• Unless Labour wakes up on social care, tragedies will happenLabour has discarded its social care commitments and seems set to repeat the failure of previous governments to tackle the care crisis, the sector’s leaders have warned.Announcements by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, that she would not cap costs for older people’s care and Stephen Kinnock, the care minister
  
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• Interfering do-gooders, social services and Interrail adventures | Letters

  30-08-2024 18:37
  Matt Atkinson on having to persuade his local authority to investigate a young traveller, and Joan Lewis on cross-Europe travelI am one of those interfering do-gooders who have referred instances of children travelling alone across Europe to social services. I’m surprised that they were so quick to investigate Kirstie Allsopp (Kirstie Allsopp reported to social services for allowing son, 15, to travel abroad, Report, 25 August), considering the difficulty I had persuading my local authorit
  
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• Alarm at failure to inspect 60% of England homecare providers in four years or longer

  30-08-2024 07:00
  
  Care leaders warn of serious safety risk as research reveals some providers have never been inspectedCare leaders have warned of a serious safety risk as research revealed 60% of homecare providers had not been inspected for at least four years, or ever.As the government prepares to receive a report on profound failings at its Care Quality Commission (CQC) that triggered the chief executive’s removal this summer and a public apology, the Homecare Association warned 37% of providers of domi
  
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• Love, warmth and hard work: the heart of the UK care system – photo essay

  26-08-2024 08:00
  
  The photographer Halena Hucker has spent the last year interviewing care workers and photographing behind the scenes of the care sector in a project titled In Love and Care. She documents the multifaceted nature of care work and highlights humanity amid the care system’s economic and political uncertainties, emphasising how the dedication of carers sustains the systemIn Love and Care came from a personal place in my heart. Many of my family members work in care, with aunties and cousins wo
  
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• More than 14,000 NHS beds in use by patients ready to be discharged

  26-08-2024 01:01
  
  Care homes and homecare providers wait weeks for people to be brought from hospital, report revealsMore than 14,000 NHS hospital beds are being occupied every day by patients who are well enough to be discharged, figures show, as experts urged ministers tackle the crisis.The data emerged as a damning report revealed that almost a fifth of care providers were waiting weeks for people to be transferred into their care. Continue reading...
  
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• How do you best choose an Australian aged care facility and what do the star ratings mean?

  24-08-2024 22:00
  Experts have questioned why so few homes are rated substandard, given the commission found one in three residents experience neglect, abuse or poor careFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastThe star rating system of aged care homes was introduced in December 2022 to help older people and their families compare the quality and safety of services and providers.Developed as a recommendation of the royal commiss
  
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• Which benefits are available to vulnerable people under Labour?

  23-08-2024 19:24
  
  As the winter fuel allowance is scrapped for many pensioners, we outline some other key benefits• Millions facing ‘cruel winter’ without fuel payments, Labour MPs warnLabour backbenchers are warning that millions of vulnerable people will face a “cruel winter” amid rising energy prices and a reduction in benefits, including the removal of winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.Keir Starmer’s government has promised to improve conditions for those most
  
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• Free care for all was never going to work | Letter

  23-08-2024 18:31
  Rather than free care for all, funding should concentrate on better care for the less well-off, says David LipseyAlan Walker is right to condemn the “low priority given to social care compared with healthcare” (Letters, 14 August). And yet he praises as “brilliant” the job done by the Sutherland royal commission.The Sutherland commission was a disaster for social care. It wanted huge sums spent on providing care free for the better off, without tackling the real problem a
  
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• Lollipop review – impassioned, head-butting indictment of the social-care system

  20-08-2024 22:10
  
  Edinburgh international film festival
  Informed by her own experiences, Daisy-May Hudson’s portrait of a woman trying to regain custody of her kids is surprisingly even-handedDaisy-May Hudson is the British film-maker who in 2015 made a fiercely personal documentary about homelessness: her own. Half Way told the story of how she, her mum and her 13-year-old sister lost their home and then found themselves in the bureaucratic nightmare of hostels and halfway houses, and her camera showed the
  
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• Sixfold rise in foreign care workers in UK complaining of exploitation

  19-08-2024 21:00
  
  Exclusive: RCN renews call for investigation into sector as unscrupulous employers target vulnerable workersThe number of foreign social care workers reporting that they are trapped in exploitative contracts has risen sixfold in the last three years, in the latest evidence of widespread abuse of migrants in the British care system.Data from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) shows that the organisation was contacted 134 times in 2023-24 by care workers reporting that their employers were demandi
  
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• Ellena McCabe obituary

  19-08-2024 18:41
  My friend Ellena McCabe, who has died aged 104, was the inspiration behind the creation of a social care reform campaign in Scotland at the age of 99, when she complained about standards in Scottish nursing homes.As a resident of a care home herself, Ellena’s concerns led to the creation of BetterCareScotland, the charity of which I am director of research, and which aims to get the Social Work and Care Inspectorate to properly address alleged abuses. Ellena was the campaign’s drivin
  
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• Unpaid carer says DWP’s fraud prosecution threat was ‘like blackmail’

  19-08-2024 06:00
  
  Clemency Jacques told to pay extra £1,300 for accidental carer’s allowance breach or have case sent to CPSA vulnerable unpaid carer threatened by benefits officials with prosecution for fraud unless she agreed to pay a £1,300 penalty for an accidental breach of carer’s allowance earnings rules has described her experience as “like blackmail”.Clemency Jacques, a carer for her disabled son, was told by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) investigators her cas
  
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• The Guardian view on ageing: the science of longevity is advancing | Editorial

  18-08-2024 19:30
  
  New discoveries about our bodies are emerging. But we need care as well as research to cope with ageingIncreased longevity is a triumph of modern medicine and health systems. In the UK, life expectancy has risen by about 25 years in a century – from 56 for men and 59 for women in 1920, to 80 and 83 in 2019 (since when it has slightly fallen back). While this extension is often taken for granted, rising interest in the science of ageing reveals an awareness of the challenges as well as the
  
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• ‘The hardest thing is to forgive yourself’: actor Samantha Morton and writer Jenni Fagan on the trauma of growing up in care

  18-08-2024 09:00
  
  Both women have used their work to process childhoods ravaged by neglect and abuse. Meeting for the first time, they discuss survival and anger, Fagan’s new memoir, and the state of the UK’s care system todayThe writer Jenni Fagan and the actor Samantha Morton have not met one another until today and there is, from the start, a sense of occasion – as if they were destined to be friends. They are together in London, on a sultry August afternoon, because of a book: Fagan’s
  
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• ‘You would be horrified’: the brutal calculation that decides if children in danger get help

  15-08-2024 17:00
  The child protection system is so stretched that some cases are simply marked ‘closed’ without children being seen at all, caseworkers say. In the northern rivers, the situation is among the worstFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastIt begins with a phone call. A 10-year-old boy rings, asking for help because his mum’s not coping, she’s been drinking and can’t look after him. A
  
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• The brutal calculation that decides if children in danger get help

  15-08-2024 17:00
  
  The child protection system is so stretched that some cases are simply marked ‘closed’ without children being seen at all, caseworkers say. In the northern rivers, the situation is among the worstFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastIt begins with a phone call. A 10-year-old boy rings, asking for help because his mum’s not coping, she’s been drinking and can’t look after him. A
  
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• NSW logged 112,000 children as at risk of serious harm last year. It has no idea what happened to 75% of them

  15-08-2024 17:00
  
  The child protection system is so stretched that some cases are simply marked ‘closed’ without children being seen at all, caseworkers say. In the northern rivers, the situation is among the worstGet our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcastIt begins with a phone call. A 10-year-old boy rings, asking for help because his mum’s not coping, she’s been drinking and can’t look after him. A teacher calls, concerned about a student who keeps mi
  
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• How to fill the huge gaps in social care provision | Letters

  14-08-2024 19:03
  
  Families bear the brunt of politicians’ neglect of elder care, writes Alan Walker, while Maria Brenton and Tim Johnson look to the Netherlands and Ireland Gaby Hinsliff’s piece will have resonated with anyone who has ever given frail parents everything that is lumped together under the label of “care” (The shrunken state expects families to fill the voids in health and social care. Woe betide those without children, 9 August). It has always been the case in this country t
  
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