Think of this: a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people.

[SerendipityJane]

maybe just send them to Rwanda ? Out of sight, out of mind etc ...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/25/warehouse-disabled-people-bristol-city-council

this, along with elderly care, and along with child care, or indeed any kind of care, seems to be the culmination of a collision between feminism, capitalism and profit.

Much care in the past fell, unpaid, onto women.

Women looked after kids, they looked after their, and their partners. elderly relatives, and often if they didnt like the idea of their disabled child or relative being sent off to an institution, they looked after them too.
All unpaid, and quite often unrecognised or valued, especially by the community or government.

But times changed and with women rightfully having more control over their pregnancies and careers, the goalposts of house ownership shifted, and mortgages were now based on two people working, and house prices rose. Leaving nobody home to do the caring, even if they wanted to.

Then care, along with elements of the NHS, was privatised, so profit became the driving force. Prices went up and up, and with any resource that is necessary, and paid for by councils, they were over a barrel for paying (I believe there is a scandal in waiting over the prices charged by private companies for children's home provision - pretty much a licence to print money)

The whole system has shifted and warped. And is beyond broken.

Or you might be in a car accident tomorrow and lose the use of your legs, be ripped from your family, your job, your community to be placed in a care home where you have no control over what time you get up or go to bed, what you eat, when you eat, where you spend the day, when you can see people and how many people you can see, when you are allowed to go anywhere outside the facility of ever, when you wash and how often you wash etc etc

And, as per another thread on here where care workers admitted this is an issue that isn't always tackled by the care home, you will have no right to lock yourself in your room at night and men with dementia may be free to wander in and try to grope you etc

Oh and there's this in a report from the CQC

Overall 64.2% (4 studies, n=1405) of staff reported that they had perpetrated or directed abusive acts against residents over the past year — psychological abuse (32.5%, 5 studies, n=2706), neglect (12.0%, 4 studies, n=2106) and physical abuse (9.3%, 5 studies, n=2711) had the highest prevalence.

So don't make the mistake of thinking that because you aren't disabled today you are going to "live a long full life and die at home", my life changed in an instance due to an accident that could happen to anyone

Ffs has Hitler been reborn?

Well no one needed the picture I posted translated did they ?

So agree with this. Have seen first hand how awful child provision is in private run/for profit homes.

If there is a crisis now it is of the gov/local authority making. No planning - glibly handing over to private companies care for the vulnerable should never have been countenanced. Overcharging /making profits at the expense of the vulnerable and taxpayers.

I expect if there is "warehousing" it will be run by same companies.

Women looked after kids, they looked after their, and their partners. elderly relatives, and often if they didnt like the idea of their disabled child or relative being sent off to an institution, they looked after them too
All unpaid, and quite often unrecognised or valued, especially by the community or government

There are millions of women who are unpaid carers today, unrecognised and undervalued. Not that much has changed, except now they juggle jobs as well.

And these families picking up the care are paid a pittance in comparison to private companies. It makes no sense.

well yes. This is true
They are paid a pittance for it, and actually penalised if they earn more than a pittance too

carers allowance currently around 67 a week. And you can earn the grand sum of about £140 before you lose it. No sliding scale of £1 for £1. Earn over £140 and its all gone

wtf is that about

Local authorities were forced, by government legislation, to open care provision to "competitive tendering" - which always means a race to the bottom because it's the lowest bids that win. Local authorities have been warning the government this was coming for over a decade - projections about the cost of social care have demonstrated a crisis coming for years and years, and no local authority has been quiet on that front. Social housing, especially social housing for the most vulnerable, has been sold off and not replaced - forced by the givernment - and that is still happening today. Local authorities haven't been glibly handing over anything. On the other hand the government has been glibly handing over social care contracts, medical care contracts etc to their mates for £millions. PPE anyone?

Local authorities are and always have been at a detriment in the care sector - they have little to invest in infrastructure, and very unreasonably they are under the impression that it just wouldn't be right to pay illegal wages or traffic workers from abroad.

It is actually the princely sum of £76.75. It is also taxable, so actually lower than that for some people after tax.

yes, local governments have been asset stripped. Same sort of thing happened with schools - I remember a massive investigation done by Private eye - schools made into acadamies, land sold off for development and buildings that used to be owned by the state moved into private ownership. I imagine a similar model used for all state owned property.
I know my local borough council is selling off huge assets for a pound, because they cannot afford the upkeep, or the refit required to bring up to current spec.
Thats stuff that used to be owned by the taxpayer - stuff that has been given to mates with the cash to do what councils have been forced to not be able, due to having their funding cut to the quick.

This thread is depressing.

Do you all realise you and your children are only one accident/illness away from being disabled?

Mumsnet is hideously ableist. Why is it ok?

This.

Perhaps people who care for adults should be paid more carers allowance. Approx £72 for a minimum of 35 hours care and often 24/7 is appallingly low.

Caring for children a little different since access to childcare, child tax credits, school during the day and various clubs etc. Once child leaves education and needs care, that care may be 24/7. I know families that were able to care for disabled children since school, respite, clubs etc available. However, once adult lots of the support fell away and they needed to work since carers allowance a pittance.

Our local council sold 2 tennis courts to a rich businessman who lived alongside. They couldn't afford to repair he bought for nominal sum and increased his property size and value.

I agree that it can be difficult to hear other people's views, but as someone with an adult disabled sibling in care I still think people have the right to voice their views and opinions, even if I don't always agree with them.
It's right to fight and push for what we hold dear, but it's also normal that if you are on the outside looking in you won't have that personal connection and may hold a different viewpoint.
In my family we have a multitude of "trauma" from all sorts of angles, so I try to think of things not in black and white terms.
Often the people with the loudest and most competent voices are the ones who are listened to most, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are more "worthy of help" than others.

While it would be great if every single person, whoever they are and from wherever they come, disabled or not, could have the best possible care package to achieve their potential, it's also a utopia, and therefore there will always be differences of opinion in this sort of issue.

When people see how much money it takes to provide care for some people to do the most basic things it shocks them. Often they only realise it when faced with the cost of a home for an elderly relative. If you have cared for a disabled person or a disabled person yourself, you know only too well how much value that care is worth.

It's a question though of someone on the outside saying are we going to allocate £500,000 to 1 person, or £100,000 to 5 people sort of thing, or any number of combinations.

Why do you think I posted the story.

Mobility component of PIP is still paid if someone is in a care home.

My point was that there will be nobody to provide care. No carers calling four times a day to feed me wash me and dress me, extending my life by five possibly ten years when I'm elderly. And this will be more to do with demographics than anything else. I said, we regard to me, I don't think it's the worse thing in the world, thinking more widely about what's best for the planet and the rest of the population. I separated out disabled people from this scenario. Although frankly, in the future there might not be enough bods to care for them either.

Because sadly being disabled is seen as lower class. You only have to look at the multitude threads stirring the pot about PIP.

We're all driving around in our brand new shiny free cars while scamming the government and using our benefits for big tellies and foreign holidays.

We don’t know. Given some of your ableist comments that you’ve yet to refute, presumably to be goady.

I think a part of the issue is that for ( and I'm guessing now really but anyway) a large proportion of the population, thinking about living and coping in "less than ideal" circumstances is traumatic, and so don't really want to face this possibility.

It's all very well saying you might get hit by a car, lose your sight, become seriously depressed, have to flee or fight for your country, lose your family and livelihood in a natural disaster, but it's not something that you can mentally prepare for.
Slowly slowly as a nation people are coming to terms with the idea of the possibility of things like dementia and not being able to live alone and having no one who can care for them when older, but even this isn't an easy issue . The feeling of being helpless without others to care for you is very scary.
Some families and individuals have had to think about this for a lifetime.

Yes absolutely. I couldn't have put it better myself.

This happened to my friend in Newcastle. She had a complex set of disabilities, including a spinal injury and required substantial care in her own home for help getting in and out of bed, washing, getting dressed, meal prep and cleaning. At one point she had a 24 hour care at home but she had the care package downgraded to several calls a day.

The problem was that care agencies couldn't staff her package of care so they would hand the responsibility back to the council with social workers struggling to find another provider. The care she ended up receiving was dangerous and made her depressed, at one point they didn't do her morning call till 2pm which is downright dangerous for an insulin dependent diabetic.

She was moved into a care home for a short time while she had no care package in her 40s, it was a care home for younger adults (below pension age) and that placement then became permanent. It was very lucky she was very intelligent, able to communicate her needs and advocate for herself.. She fought to keep the mobility component of PIP so she could keep her wheelchair adapted vehicle and her parents also supplemented the small amount of ESA she could keep which allowed her to get out and about and be part of the community but other severely disabled people do not have that and end up trapped in the care home 24/7.

She sadly died last year.

"When people see how much money it takes to provide care for some people to do the most basic things it shocks them. Often they only realise it when faced with the cost of a home for an elderly relative. If you have cared for a disabled person or a disabled person yourself, you know only too well how much value that care is worth."*

NHS Cancer treatment is pretty expensive too. Should we stop paying for that? Just put cancer patients in one big room and zap them all with radiation. Only the strongest survive. Does that seem the best use of public funds?

Go on then, you explain to me why you posted this thread?

Go pick on another minority group. I imagine you wouldn't dream of it.

Depending of the set up of the LA, they are required to tender and commission for services. They dont supply in house at all.

So its not lack of planning or glibly handing over to private companies, its the method by which they supply their services. Its built in

The people that vote in the local councilors? The public
The people that vote in central government? The public

I do get a bit sick of the 'public at large' getting angry about this when they have got what they voted for.