Cautious Welcome for Winter Care Plan in North Yorkshire
The county's Independent Care Group says the government needs to go further in its battle against coronavirus.
Care providers in North Yorkshire have given a cautious welcome to today’s announcement of the Winter Care Plan, to help older and vulnerable people through a possible second wave of coronavirus.
But the county's Independent Care Group (ICG) has warned that the Government needs to go further, if it wants to avoid Covid-19 taking a hold again in care settings.
It wants to see testing improved and the Government provide greater financial support for local authorities who will bear the brunt of a second wave.
And it wants to see evidence that the Government is planning reform of the sector, to avoid the social care sector continuing to be vulnerable to viruses like Covid-19.
ICG Chair, Mike Padgham, said:
“The injection of money into infection control, support over PPE and appointment of a Chief Nurse are all very welcome moves as we prepare for the winter and a possible second wave of coronavirus.
“But whilst these are positive, I fear we have to go further if we are to get through the coming months without seeing Covid-19 take a hold again.
“We urgently need the Government to get more funding to local authorities to help them to do whatever they need to do in their own local areas.
“And we have to get more people into the sector to address the staffing crisis social care has, with 100,000 vacancies on any one day. The only way to do that is to pay social care staff better for the amazing job they do, not just during coronavirus but all the time.”
“Before coronavirus we knew there were at least 1.5m people living in this country without the care they need. With coronavirus, heaven knows what that figure is now.
“It is now more than a year since Boris Johnson promised to end the social care crisis once and for all and the only thing we have seen is the situation getting worse.
“Under-funded and neglected by government after government, coronavirus exposed a social care system that was already in crisis and plunged it into further despair.
“We need to see, immediately, as a matter of urgency, a full, root and branch overhaul of the social care system.”
The ICG wants to see:
• A root and branch overhaul of the way social care is planned and funded
• NHS care and social care to be merged and managed either locally or nationally
• Extra funding for social care, funded by taxation or National Insurance
• A guarantee that people receiving publicly-funded care can receive it in their own home or close to where they live
• A commissioner for older people and those with Learning Disabilities in England
• A properly-costed national rate for care fees linked to a national career pathway and salary framework for care staff
• Dementia treated like other high priority illnesses, like cancer and heart disease
• A fixed percentage of GDP to be spent on social care
• A cap on social care costs, including ‘hotel’ charges
• Local Enterprise Partnerships to prioritise social care
• A national scheme to ensure people save for their own care, as they do for a pension
• A new model of social care delivery based on catchment areas – like GPs
• Social care businesses to be zero-rated for VAT
• CQC to have much greater powers to oversee all commissioning practises such as per minute billing and 15-minute visits
• Less duplication of inspection between CQC and local authorities/CCGs
• Greater recognition of the role of the independent sector and utilisation of its expertise in the commissioning and delivery of social care
• Guaranteed equal partnership working through seats on Health and Well Being Boards, CCGs and NHS
• Giving providers and CQC greater flexibility in delivering services
• Providing telemedicine incentives
• Allowing nurses and social care staff from overseas to work in the U.K. including lowering the salary cap
• Training and bursaries to encourage recruitment/end the shortage of nurses
• Long term measures to integrate older and younger people in care settings and change the perception of the generations
• Investment in research and development into new models of social care delivery
• Funding to help upgrade older care homes to maintain a range of choice for the public and investment in domiciliary care
• Funding for leadership training.