3 minute read
by careengland
Foreword by Professor Martin Green Chief Executive of Care England
The Government has just announced it will be ending the overseas care visas, and yet again, this was done without any consultation or, seemingly, without any impact assessment. There also seems to be a view within the Government that there are lots of people who are currently not employed and could work in the care sector. If they had taken the time to ask the sector, they would understand that it is not about people filling vacancies, it is about attracting the right people with good core values into the sector. Working in care is a very skilled and challenging job, and it is not something everybody can do. What we need from the Government is a route map on how we will fill these vacancies, now that overseas recruitment has been closed to us.
This month, we have seen The Dementia Action Week, and the purpose of the week is to raise the profile of dementia and to ensure that people get an early diagnosis. One of the many challenges in residential care is that many people living with dementia do not have a diagnosis, and this makes it even more challenging to support them in appropriate ways. It is disappointing that the Government has scrapped the dementia diagnosis targets because this was a way of ensuring that the system could be judged against a target, and we could also see regional variations. One way they could have supported the diagnosis targets would have been to do reviews of people living in care homes. We should also acknowledge that many people who have learning disabilities often develop dementia, and this is another area which should be part of any dementia strategy.
Support for people living with dementia is one of the things that our sector can be proud of, and we are true exemplars of good practice. There is much we can teach the NHS. I was a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Palliative and End of Life Care, which delivered its report and recommendations. This was another area where the sector excels. There is such good practice throughout social care, and we can be very proud of our fantastic support to people at the end of their lives.
There are so many challenging issues battering the sector at the moment, but we must hold onto the difference we make to people’s lives. Social care is a foundation stone of any civilised society, and whatever the Government does, we must keep delivering for the people we support and getting our positive messages to every citizen.
