Karolina Gerlich, Executive Director, The Care Workers’ Charity
Perfectly quoted in the Financial Times last month ‘We need to see social care as an investment not a cost.’
Often the ugly sister to her more popular sister the NHS, it becomes clearer by the day that social care isn’t an appendage, it’s a service that when done well is part of the backbone of our society.
We cannot escape the ever-increasing ageing population; it is a fact and will keep growing year on year. And yes, throwing money at the same old problems doesn’t work, it’s real strategic investment that looks at a sustainable workable system that benefits both those working in the sector as well as those supported by it.
Concerns about the social care system even made it into the Archbishop of Canterbury’s New Year message where he urged the government to take action to fix the country’s broken social care system.
Perhaps more poignant was his quote: “Caring goes to the heart of what it means to be human. It is hard, but it can also be the most life-giving thing we ever do. It comes back to that essential lesson: we need each other.”
We really do. From someone receiving home care, residential nursing care, mental health or learning disability care. The needs and the situations can be as varied as they are complex, but one thing is for sure local authorities cash starved budgets continue to exacerbate the situation.
Short-term sticking plasters are provided as a solution but in actual fact they do little to help the sector plan for the long term. With everyone spinning so many plates it leaves an already tired workforce simply exhausted.
Billions of pounds have been made available to health and social care, one thing we do know is that a large proportion of that money is going towards discharging patients from hospital. Yet how can that be properly implemented when domiciliary care is dealing with a recruitment crisis just like its residential care counterparts?
How did we get to this under staffed over-worked system? Is it because we undervalue the work of a carer, or even worse, is it because we undervalue the worth of those who draw on social care?
Rishi Sunak was asked on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg earlier in January: “Would you do the job of a care worker for £18,000 a year?” he didn’t answer the question.
Of course, we know he wouldn’t. Before this cost of living crisis, a quarter of care workers were living in poverty. It is officially a low paid occupation. But we know the value of a carer for the people that draw on social care. Those supported and cared for would value a carer as priceless. However, do carers themselves feel valued?
Being responsible for the lives and wellbeing of others is something every carer carries around with them. There isn’t an off button, they don’t stop caring because they have gone home. Often, they sacrifice their own life, and their own time to care, the demands are relentless, and the negative affects on mental wellbeing enormous. This coupled with the cost-of-living crisis, long-covid, strikes, you name it, specifics of which just create more pressure, more demands and more desperation.
The responsibility of a carer is to create a connection where someone feels safe, not lonely, cared for, and even loved. It isn’t about doing everything for an individual, it’s about supporting independence and enablement to foster an improved quality of life, for most in the final chapter of their lives. Surely the same principal should apply to supporting a care worker.
Value isn’t about a clap or a thank you, and yes, we can acknowledge the access and funding to professional development, training and career progression. But it doesn’t help with time, more time to be more than just a carer without the associated pressures?
