Barbara Windsor’s widower is campaigning for better dementia care as her legacy – I agree that we need urgent social care reform to make sure that people with dementia and their families can access specialist support. Over the next few years more and more families will be impacted by this […]
A new survey from Age UK shows that 70% of families haven’t been able to visit relatives in care homes at all during the coronavirus crisis. Many families will be desperate their loved ones after so long. Now the Government have finally said that visits can take place, they must […]
I was invited to read a story for National Care Forum‘s Christmas Advent Calendar – a virtual celebration sharing inspirational stories of those Caring in Covid. Anchor Hanover St Mary’s worked with residents and their families to collect letters, nostalgic photos, uniforms, and rousing posters from World War II, to […]
Last week I met with the Care Provider Alliance (CPA) to discuss issues facing the social care sector. The CPA represents the adult social care sector including care homes, home care and supported living. The main thing we discussed was the Chancellor’s latest spending review. The Government announced £1bn […]
More than 175,000 patients were referred last year for Continuing Healthcare funding (CHC), typically worth around £1,000 a week. New findings show that there were failings in more than a third of cases investigated by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, meaning incorrect and delayed decisions were being made by […]
Many care homes are reliant on staff from the European Union, and once we leave the EU it will be hard to cover these gaps. Labour has been warning for months now about the risks posed to social care by the Government’s new immigration system, which come on top of […]
Twice the number of people as normal have said they’ll spend Christmas alone this year as a result of the pandemic. This follows a growing concern about the impact of loneliness during the pandemic – the consequences of this must not be ignored. Read more in The Guardian.
Last week I joined one of Mobilise’s ‘Virtual Cuppas’ with carers from across the country. Their ‘Virtual Cuppas’ have been running every day since March, and give carers a chance to meet each other and share their experiences. Mobilise are using technology to identify and support people caring for family […]
On Carers Rights Day, I spoke at North West roundtable with carers and care providers, organised by Cllr Joanne Harding. We heard some heartbreaking stories from people who have not been able to see their families, and the key role that unpaid carers play in looking after elderly, ill or […]
Care homes are spending an average of £4,000 to help relatives see their loved ones. Families are desperate to visit relatives in care homes, and we know visits are vital to mental health and wellbeing of residents. The Government have failed to back up their promises to families with the […]
I asked the Care Minister to start utilising the 157,000 spare tests currently unused to test families visiting care homes. For many families, it has been eight months since they last saw their loved ones in person. A pilot scheme simply fails to understand the scale or urgency of the […]
New figures from the Labour Party show that there are around 157,000 coronavirus tests a day going unused. This excess testing capacity in the system shows that family testing can be done now, not after a pilot. For families of care home residents every week is crucial and we cannot […]
