Regular News - 19 February 2024
Written by Lucy Nichol - Edited by CACHE Alumni
Sector news update
Hello and welcome to another fortnightly news update. This week we look at the publication of a new King’s Fund report on the need for more primary and community services, we also look at several stories of families campaigning for improved services and increased rights and we finish on a lovely case study of an intergenerational community project.
General social care news
King’s Fund publishes new report: ‘Making Care Closer to Home a Reality’. The report focuses on how the health and care system must shift its focus from hospital care to primary and community services.
⇨ Access the summary and full report here
Responding to the King’s Fund report, the Daily Mail focuses on how money has been disproportionately directed to hospitals and how a failure to properly invest in general practice and social care is one of the biggest policy blunders of the past 30 years.
⇨ Read more here
Scandal hits Bradford Council as former deputy director of children’s social care is sentenced on drugs charges. Leading politicians have called for an inquiry after Irfan Alam pleaded guilty to possession and supply of crystal meth.
⇨ Read more here
Disabled campaigners have secured a significant victory over a local authority that threatened to force people with high support needs into residential care.
⇨ Read the full story here
More than 100 families looking after severely disabled adults and children have told the BBC they have serious concerns about how the NHS is failing to provide enough vital support.
⇨ Read the full report here
A care group CEO has said that free social care would ‘bankrupt the country’ and that it would be impossible to provide it without raising income tax to unrealistic levels.
⇨ Read more here
Tech
This feature in HSJ talks about the power of data when in the hands of clinicians, and how it can empower early interventions.
⇨ Read more here
Children’s care
This piece in Community Care highlights the need to involve children in the use of digital tools in children’s social care. It says these tools have the power to enhance safeguarding, but engaging children and up-skilling social workers is paramount.
⇨ Read the full article here
The mother of a child with special educational needs is campaigning for parents to be present when authorities make decisions about their children’s care.
⇨ Read more here
And finally….
This is a fabulous example of the benefits of an intergenerational community as reported on by Helen Pidd in the Guardian. At Belong Chester, where a care home built a nursery, older residents and young children have the chance to spend the day together, which has led to significant improvements in all their lives.
⇨ Read the full story here
We’ll be back in touch in a fortnight with more updates, news and views.
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