How would UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson 'fix' social care?

Photo of Liz Truss from Disability News Service

Recent reports in Hereford Times (1) (2) (3) flag up quality deficits in social care provision in the County that I recognise as borne largely of cuts in public spending that actually predate the 2010 General Election and the 2008 banks collapse. And those deficits  –  relating to residential homes and social worker working conditions – are likely to be exacerbated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’ vow to “get Brexit done” (4) while Government Minister Liz Truss has stated that the Social Care Green Paper [public consultation document] that Johnson claimed would ‘fix’ social care’ does not exist!(5)

I was born with an invisible disability and that helped me connect with adults with learning difficulties when I was a Basic Education Learning Support Volunteer in 2004 and latterly domiciliary care worker to learning disabled adults in 2005/06 on 3 hour contact sessions with inadequate in-service training due to cuts in central government funding of local authorities. My metaphor for the latter role was ‘an all-terrain vehicle’: the term ‘learning difficulties’ covers a very broad constituency.

Nowadays, many care sessions are just 15 minutes long, and the workers are still not paid for travel between care sessions and/or preparation time. Low quality, negligent care arising from this has been identified in a Kings Fund charity report “consistently identified by service users, carers and families, policy-makers and people working in the sector. ”(6)

Like the NHS, UK social care is largely dependent upon skilled staff trained abroad, including EU migrant workers without whom social care in the UK would be the poorer.

Boris Johnson said in Downing Street in July after becoming prime minister: “… and so I am announcing now – on the steps of Downing Street – that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared.” (7) With prospective post-Brexit trade deal terms and conditions  yet to be determined, I am reminded that as Green Party Spokesperson on Disability in 2008 confronted by a ‘No-one written off: Reforming welfare to reward responsibility’ Green Paper in which the consultation questions related more to ‘rewarding’ work-for-your-benefits global corporations than even recognising the existence of disabled jobseekers of which I was one.(8)

Alan Wheatley

Notes

1. http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/18011020.damning-cqc-report-herefordshire-nursing-home/
2. http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/18011020.damning-cqc-report-herefordshire-nursing-home/
3. http://www.herefordtimes.com/news/18084096.social-workers-in-tears-huge-workload/
4. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=%22boris+johnson%22+%22get+brexit+done%22
5. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/election-2019-minister-thinks-social-care-green-paper-does-not-exist/
6. https://www.maturetimes.co.uk/social-care-a-new-view/
7. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/election-2019-minister-thinks-social-care-green-paper-does-not-exist/
8. http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/GPEW_writing_off-workfare_final.doc