What does 'social care' mean?

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

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This is cropping up more on the news lately, usually when it's a topic about the NHS. When I search social care on Wikipaedia, it redirects me to social work. Social workers are usually from the county council and in my case, they helped with providing visual aids and hearing equipment for my sensory loss. So just wondered what the NHS term social care means?
 
I was under the impression it was all the care for elderly and those with disabilities, etc. where it was needed including transport, feeding/dressing, etc. where appropriate.
 
Ah thanks :) It kinda overlaps with social workers then, but they were definitely from the council for me. About home modifications, they provided me with a vibrating alarm clock (as can't hear sound without hearing aids), a louder door bell, louder smoke alarm, a monocular (sight in 1 eye only) and various magnification aids.

Edit: social care is more geared towards the elderly I take it from Rroff's post.
 
I think social care is pretty much the various work that is done in the community and not within a hospital, such as care packages and assistance from the social services.
 
Rroff said:
Wouldn't say it was more geared towards but they do make up a large part of the work.
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Children's services account for a greater share of the Cornwall Council budget than adult's services.

26% of the entire budget goes to children's services; 25% to adults. Those encompass a huge variety of services and facilities. Everything from staffing youth centres to helping people get social housing. Loads and loads and loads of council-run schemes there are.

So basically >50% of the entire council's budget goes to "social care" in one form or another.
 
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FishFluff said:
It's a part that's increasing at a rapid pace as the population ages.
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There's always been an elderly population... Some needing care and some not, also years ago perhaps people could depend on their family unit to support them more. Just as an example, Grandma on my mother's side was a creaking gate for years (she eventually died at 82) but apart from the odd spell in hospital remained at home where one of my Uncles lived in and the other brothers and sisters living locallywould frequently pop round. She paid for a cleaning lady twice a week and being a practicing RC there was plenty of support from the church community.

These days, families are often scattered 100's of miles from where their elderly relatives reside. We live in a post-religion society where very few people go to church or even (myself included) hold much belief in that side of things so there is no community or priest to come knocking on the door. Many people at best speak occasionally with the next door neighbour if they even talk or know their name at all. We have good neighbours on one side (in their mid to late 70's and not needing care) and an obnoxious pair of so and so's on the other, also in their 70's but again hale and hearty not posing any burden on the State.

So while this does mean the burden starts to fall on the local authority, the other side of the coin seems from casual observation how much some of these care homes are charging - often more than full board at a five star hotel! That is perhaps one side of the problem worthy of investigation.
 
Having witnesses how hard it is to get social care / support all I can say is that it's an area that just seems to be ignored by all.

Councils are supposed to provide it but they don't have the money and a lot of it falls on charities.

It needs to either be taken in as part of the nhs or a new national service should provide it with far closer integration with the nhs. Far too much reliance on private companies that charge a fortune, care homes really shouldn't be profitable.
 
Care in the community. Since people are living longer and we don't fund the NHS properly most elderly and disabled people are left to stew at home and once or twice a day someone will come to their home and shove pills in their mouth and occasionally run them a bath
 
It was on the Beeb again at lunchtime today, can't find it on the net atm.

It was about social care being an over-worked sector, with 12-hour shifts and 0-hour contracts being fairly common. Each staff member has an average case load of 30 clients, some with challenging behaviour. Then the story threw in some percentages, something like 7% staff shortage across the sector overall and 26% abandon the sector within a year. It's going to be a growing problem if staff working conditions don't improve and the austerity measures continue.
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
It was on the Beeb again at lunchtime today, can't find it on the net atm.

It was about social care being an over-worked sector, with 12-hour shifts and 0-hour contracts being fairly common. Each staff member has an average case load of 30 clients, some with challenging behaviour. Then the story threw in some percentages, something like 7% staff shortage across the sector overall and 26% abandon the sector within a year. It's going to be a growing problem if staff working conditions don't improve and the austerity measures continue.
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Not far off minimum wage when you consider that they aren't paid for travel time. Social care in terms of care in the home is almost always commissioned based on contact time, so councils only pay providers for the time a carer spends with a service user, providers pay their staff the same way. You'll see some companies offering guaranteed hours of say 40 pw but again that only covers contact time, so if you assume 20 mins travel for every hour of care delivered you can start to see what the working week looks like for these people.

The sector needs more money, more integration with health, and a major overhaul of service delivery. At the moment though that's not where central govt, and consequently local govt prioritiea lie.
 
FortuitousFluke said:
The sector needs more money, more integration with health, and a major overhaul of service delivery. At the moment though that's not where central govt, and consequently local govt prioritiea lie.
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Health and social care were consolidated together in January this year. Financial challenges not withstanding, they're now integrated at the top.
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
It was on the Beeb again at lunchtime today, can't find it on the net atm.

It was about social care being an over-worked sector, with 12-hour shifts and 0-hour contracts being fairly common. Each staff member has an average case load of 30 clients, some with challenging behaviour. Then the story threw in some percentages, something like 7% staff shortage across the sector overall and 26% abandon the sector within a year. It's going to be a growing problem if staff working conditions don't improve and the austerity measures continue.
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There was something on the BBC couple of days ago, but I can't find it from a quick google about shortages of critical staff - made me face palm as where I work we've had a fair few come through temporary before going into that industry (with many I've a vague idea where they are now) and/or coming back to us from that industry - most of them have left that industry due to the conditions especially the way they are treated as employees and most of these people aren't under any illusions as to the kind of the work they'd be doing or afraid of long hours, etc.
 
The_Abyss said:
Health and social care were consolidated together in January this year. Financial challenges not withstanding, they're now integrated at the top.
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I can tell you from personal experience that, despite the above and the inclusion of initiatives like the Better Care Fund, that integration has not cascaded very far down the ladder.

The authority I'm currently working with has curtailed further integration seemingly for political reasons and during my previous job the local ccg' s were extremely difficult to engage.

It's only been a month since the changes I suppose but I'm very sceptical that the ingrained behaviours can be broken down in any meaningful way.
 
FortuitousFluke said:
I can tell you from personal experience that, despite the above and the inclusion of initiatives like the Better Care Fund, that integration has not cascaded very far down the ladder.

The authority I'm currently working with has curtailed further integration seemingly for political reasons and during my previous job the local ccg' s were extremely difficult to engage.

It's only been a month since the changes I suppose but I'm very sceptical that the ingrained behaviours can be broken down in any meaningful way.
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Could not have put this better myself. As a lead for intergrated services at my trust what you have said is very true.

Your experience in 1 month is the same as my experience 1 year later since the intergrated model was implemented.
 
ghummy said:
Could not have put this better myself. As a lead for intergrated services at my trust what you have said is very true.

Your experience in 1 month is the same as my experience 1 year later since the intergrated model was implemented.
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It's extremely frustrating, I'm experienced in service delivery, development, procurement and contracts management so I have a broad view. The benefits of a blurred line between health and social care are so massive yet nobody wants to give up any power or money, or put the effort into tackling the hurdles. Bonkers.
 
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