Prestige Nursing + Care, one of the UK’s most established private nursing care and support care agencies, is to host two sessions at the upcoming Residential and Home
Prestige Nursing + Care awarded CQC Outstanding rating
Prestige Nursing + Care, one of the UK’s most established private nursing care and support care agencies, has received an overall ‘Outstanding’ Care Quality Commission (CQC)
The deepening crisis in social care
While we are now all too familiar with the perilous state of the social care system, the latest report from Age UK makes for sobering reading. It estimates that as many as 1.2 million people aged 65 or above – equivalent to roughly one in eight – are not receiving the support they require for vital daily activities such as eating, bathing and dressing. This new figure represents a startling 17.9% rise from the previous year, with the number of those without access to the support and care they need almost doubling since 2010.
The report suggests that the dire warnings [...]
Homecare: do Councils pay enough?
A report from UK Homecare Association (UKHCA) published today raises the issue of local councils paying homecare providers less and less, putting the whole sector under enormous financial strain and limiting its ability to deliver high quality care to vulnerable adults.
The report finds that publicly-funded older people’s homecare is under threat of a £513 million shortfall in what councils are paying providers. The UKHCA estimates that in order for homecare services to function effectively, a council needs to pay a provider £16.70 an hour, to cover business costs, ensure staff are paid the new National Minimum Wage of £7.20 per [...]
A new tax?
Headlines were made last week by calls from Dr Dan Poulter – a former health minister – for an additional tax to fund health and social care in order to save it from collapse. Poulter’s experiences make him an astute judge of the sector’s performance. As well as serving as a minister in the Department of Health, he is a fully trained gynaecological practitioner and still continues to work as a doctor for the NHS on a part time basis. Furthermore, the fact that a former Conservative frontbencher, who is unlikely to be an enthusiastic proponent of higher taxes, is supporting [...]
A sector under pressure
In April, one of Britain’s biggest residential care providers, Four Seasons Care, reported an annual loss of £264 million – putting even more pressure on a company £500 million in the red. The collapse of Four Seasons would have severe fallout for its residents – the firm cares for 18,500 elderly people in 62 homes – as well as the wider social care sector. Worryingly, the brand is far from an isolated example; recent research from the BBC suggests a quarter of care homes in the UK are currently at risk of closure, and many face an uphill struggle when it comes [...]
The unfair demonisation of agency staff
Research from The King’s Fund revealed that one in five hospital finance chiefs believe the incoming cap on agency staff will damage the quality of care provision. According to the directors, the cap could directly affect their ability to keep enough nurses and doctors on their wards to meet the needs of patients, something that is totally unacceptable.
From April this year, the NHS will be able to pay no more than a 55% premium on the salary of a permanent doctor or nurse for a shift. The government and policymakers hope that this will end what they see as agencies ‘ripping off’ [...]
Bed-blocking rears its head again
Reports in the Daily Telegraph suggest NHS bosses believe elderly patients are refusing to give up their hospital beds, for fear of the financial repercussions of going into a care home. This paints a very disturbing picture of the state of the nation’s elderly care provision, and the impact this has on wider health and social care services. According to health chiefs, the number of elderly people who are fit to leave hospital but choose to remain has increased by 15% over the past 12 months alone, an enormous jump in a relatively short space of time.
This steep rise illustrates just [...]
NHS blunders and the provision of social care
This week, the Times published a damning report highlighting the acute waste associated with this government’s ‘streamlining’ of the NHS, as more than £90m was spent on redundancy to staff who were then immediately rehired. This does not come at a good time for the health service, which is still reeling from the press attention its reported £2.2 billion deficit attracted at the end of last year.
The Times also reveals that £150 million was spent on management consultancy designed to make the health service more efficient. Both revelations highlight the gross mismanagement and the misspending of public funds that should have gone [...]
Social care’s winter crisis and Care City
The Office for National Statistics recently reported that 43,900 excess winter deaths occurred among over 65s this winter – many of which were entirely preventable. This is double that of 2013/14, and throws into sharp relief the calamitous effects the winter months can have on the nation’s elderly population. The fact this figure is rising so dramatically is totally unacceptable in an advanced country like the UK, and represents a significant failure on the part of policymakers to tackle underlying issues.
As Age UK Charity Director, Caroline Abrahams states, cold homes, high energy prices and a lack of support combine to create [...]