To ask what we do to help with the cost of social care?

[AdultsSocialCare]

Adult and childrens social care takes up the majority of all council tax spend. This leaves a small amount for everything else that councils do.

What is the solution?

I feel like ultimately the central government need to give more money to councils but the chance of that has to be next to nil.

So, what else?

Chuckling to myself at sending GCSE students into a care home 😂😂😂

Good luck to them with the personal care and using the slings and hoists safely. LOL

Surely what you would have to pay someone to look after a relative would depend partly on the job they were leaving to do it? I couldnt have afforded to give up work to look after my mother - i would have needed at least 40k and a guarantee that my employer would take me back afterwards (I live in a low paying area in the south with few job opportunities)

Councils used to run daycare for the elderly. Clients would be picked up and brought to the centre. They had company, activities, visiting chiropodist and hairdresser. Staff would bathe those who needed it. A hot meal and drinks. That was ended and now people sit alone at home with visiting carers who appear for 30 minutes. Families could cope with caring for their relatives because they could continue to work and they got respite. Now the option seems to be manage at home or full time residential. It's a shame they were closed,

You can appeal against this and ask for your son to be awarded direct payments with you employed as his full time carer. I know because ive done it.
It took some fighting for but they agreed it was the best solution in the end.

That is a shame.

I think 2 weeks work experience for year 11's could be in a care home for an extra GCSE, credits for Uni, vouchers etc

Definitely not. Who would want a resentful 15 or 16 year old looking after them? Care should be properly paid for those who want to do it and will do it well.

There is something to be said for the granny annexe idea but then people will benefit from that once the person has died, so they don't really need the financial help (and if the elderly person is selling a house, they can afford to pay for the granny annexe anyway, you might need some sort of low cost bridging loan).

Bottom line is that we all need to pay more tax and the tax needs to go to pay for decent public services including preventative healthcare.

No silly tinkering at the edges.

That’s good to hear it can be possible. Like Madwife I was told when I started Direct Payments that I could not employ relatives. Sounds like there could be discretion but the blanket rule is no for my county.

Direct Payments is an excellent scheme for my needs and it’s much cheaper than using an agency. It’s not often schemes are good but i credit the people who designed it. The scheme doesn’t suit everybody but as said for those it does it works really well.

This sounds like a good idea @Plantstrees .

I've often wondered if there could be some sort of reciprocal arrangement between an elderly person, living alone, just needing a bit of help with shopping, housework, gardening, companionship etc (though not personal care!) in exchange for free accommodation.

I'm not sure how you would police that though to ensure a vulnerable elderly person wasn't being fleeced or that the free lodger wasn't being used as a personal slave.

I remember my Grandma looking after her GC if needed while her DC worked and in turns as she aged her DC and GC looking after her. But in today's world with a growing elderly population a lot of family members have no choice but to work FT in order to pay the bills. Equally due to lack of real affordable housing in areas where they've grown up families are forced to live miles away from their parents so it's impossible to be able to be available at the drop of a hat.

It seems I'm not the only one who thought the help/companionship in exchange for accommodation was a good idea.
It already exists and is called "Helpful Housemates".

Social care system -> privatised -> broken
gas and electric companies -> privatised -> broken
water companies -> privatised -> broken
train travel -> privatised -> broken

gosh it’s almost like when profit becomes the number one priority it screws stuff up, who knew 🤔

THIS is so important to address this.

There are so many totally unpaid carers, or carers relying on £69pw, which is not sustainable. But when free family care eventually breaks down because nobody can do that indefinitely then the Council may find themselves paying for the care at a much higher rate.

Our council have now set a weekly budget of £2700 for dd but I’ve been doing it for nothing doe years at cost to my career, health and finances.

It would save money and rescue families to pay family member carers somewhere sensible between £69 pw and £2700pw!

Secondly, The provision of care needs to be put back directly into Council hands. The construct of private care homes and care agencies provides massive profits for those companies and strangles individuals and Councils.

Our £2700 budget is based on an hourly rate of £16 but we can’t find private carers willing to do the job. Private agencies have carers available but demand £25ph or more. If we can’t find people within our budget then the Council are obliged to provide someone regardless of cost anyway. The carers aren’t receiving that £25 so the Council is directly handing out money to profit private companies.

I worked for a utility company that had been privatised. You cannot assume that privatisation is always bad. Pre-privatisation you had to go on a waiting list for our services and there was no innovation at all. Workers skived off regularly and many didnt look that good at their jobs anyway. Post privatisation they were much more efficient, innovative and the service for customers was far superior.

dreamingofsun, exactly what kind of utilility company were you working at? Thanks.

Legalising euthanasia

Sounds mean but we can't support our ageing population the way things are now

@Miffee, thanks for this reply.

friars - dont want to be too specific, but it supplied something similar to electric to everyone in the country.

Plenty of us do care at a cost of nothing to the govt/LA. Pensioners with a disabled partner or child don't even get the carers allowance which isn't much but would be helpful.

Scotland is introducing a National Care Service. It'll be interesting to see how that goes.

How will it work?

Euthanise the Tories. That would help.
Tax the rich. Close tax loopholes. There's plenty of money.

Nationalise care homes.
Invest in youth services.

Investment in youth services that's a good one.

More affordable social housing needs to be built across the UK for older people (extra care preferably). The right type of housing has been proven to delay the need for residential care. Residents live independently, but are attached to a hub with available care as and when its needed. The opportunity for socialising helps reduce loneliness and isolation, and helps with mental health.

The right housing helps prevent older people from bed blocking in hospital, it also removes a lot of worry from families who don’t live close enough to be on hand. And older people who move into it usually leave family size homes which are in short supply in some areas.

@Spikeyball , exactly. My DM and FiL both spent their last years in care homes because of dementia which had reached the stage where they needed someone on hand 24/7 - by which I mean all day, all night, 365 days a year.
Which is just not sustainable for long in an ordinary domestic setting.

I don’t know anyone who’s taken this decision lightly at all.
Incidentally they were both self-funded.

The council will be soon be funding through children's social care, a 52 week residential placement for my son not because he needs 52 weeks but because they have no respite provision or in the community support for young people with his needs.

I suspect many parents do! We certainly did - we asked for 2 nights a week respite. We didn’t get it. We went for a 52 week placement, and got it!