'No one in charge' of social care as governments branded 'asleep at the wheel'

Résumé détaillé

Baroness Louise Casey will sound the alarm over the state of the social care system in a speech on Wednesday as part of a major review into the crisis-hit sector

Successive governments have been “asleep at the wheel” on social care, leading to a “fundamentally fragmented system” with no one in charge, Baroness Casey will say today.

The Whitehall trouble-shooter has been tasked with a coming up with plans for a sweeping overhaul of the crisis-hit sector by next summer, which will shape Andy Burnham’s vision for a National Care Service. New research commissioned by her team laid bare the chaos in the system, which is dominated by private providers in a “largely uncontrolled and unintended way”.

Two people with the same condition often have different experiences depending on where they live - including different assessment processes, waits, and levels of support. People paying for their own care are being charged, on average, 40 per cent more for the same service than people for whom care is arranged by their council, the report found.

And while more than 1.5 million social care staff work across around 19,000 employers, England is the only one of the UK nations without a mandatory register of care workers.

Baroness Casey has also written to the Covid Inquiry, branding its findings a cause of national shame. It comes after the official probe found Government failures allowed Covid to spread like wildfire in care homes and rejected the then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock's claim that a "protective ring" had been thrown around the sector.

Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services Conference, she is expected to say: “The Covid-19 Inquiry took apart the argument that a “protective ring” had been thrown around care homes during the pandemic.

"Many old people died without their loved ones by their side. Many care workers left their jobs after what they had seen. It is a national shame that this was allowed to happen. It should never happen again.

"Successive governments have been asleep at the wheel. In research we’re publishing today the lack of ‘stewardship’ of social care comes through clearly. No one is in charge.

"Together…

Début de l'article, extrait de Daily Mirror. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.