Welfare Reform on the Web (November 2005): Social Care - UK

Been there, done that

M. George

Community Care, Oct.13th-19th 2005, p.34-35

All social care employers need to make more efforts to recruit and retain experienced older social care staff. Pressure to recruit older staff will be increased by the introduction of regulations outlawing age discrimination in employment in 2006.

A Dying need

J. Hocking

Community Care, Oct.6th-12th 2005, p.28-30

Palliative care social workers offer physical, psychological, social, spiritual and financial support to people with cancer, heart or kidney failure, multiple sclerosis or AIDS. They often work alone or as part of small social work teams in health settings, and opportunities for career progression are few. They are also often marginalised by health colleagues.

'Inspecting for Better Lives' – one year on

M. Wigg

Caring Times, Oct 2005, p.16 & 27

One year after the Commission for Social Care Inspection's forward plan this article looks at the regulator's progress, focussing on the responsibility to communicate their guidance and requirements clearly and on inspection methodology and the reliability of evidence collection.

Knock it down and start again

M. Ivory

Community Care, Oct.20th-26th 2005, p.32-34

Article charts the rise and fall of the generic social services department introduced after the Seebohm report in 1971.

Partnerships between health and social care under “New Labour”: smoke without fire? A review of policy and evidence

C. Glendinning, B. Dowling and M. Powell

Evidence and Policy, vol.1, 2005, p.365-381

Since coming to power in 1997, the New Labour government has placed great emphasis on partnership working to deliver co-ordinated health and social care services. Unfortunately this policy theme conflicts with its continuing promotion of quasi-markets in the public services and encouragement of competition between providers. Partnership working has also been subordinated to a plethora of centrally imposed targets and performance management strategies and to and intensification of audit and inspection regimes.

Responses to the consultation on adult social care in England: analysis of feedback from the Green Paper Independence, Well-being and Choice

Department of Health London: 2005

The top three areas of interest to respondents were proposals related to direct payments/individual budgets, the shift to prevention and risk management. There was overwhelming support for the vision promoted in the Green Paper, especially for the proposed shift to an outcomes based approach, earlier preventative services, and more user choice.

Sector says OFT report avoids the central issue

G.Hodgson

Caring Times, Oct 2005, p.12

While the Government's commitment to the Office of Fair Trading's May recommendations about greater information for people seeking care is welcomed by the care sector, support is qualified by concerns that the care funding issue being ignored. This article briefly reports on Registered Nursing Home Association concerns that discussion is being stifled on whether payments by the NHS and local authorities meet actual costs, and on the Commission for Social Care Inspection's comments on the recommendations.