National Care Service

Care In Your Community

Stephen Richard — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 21:08:48 +0000

Care In Your Community

Primary Author or Creator

Colin Turbett

Stephen Richard Sun, 09/12/2021 - 22:08

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Mon, 06/21/2021 - 12:00

Category

Community

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Putting Community Hubs at the heart of a National Care Service.

More details

― The notion of resilient communities coping with the pandemic has revived the notion of community hubs as significant centres for public service delivery and voluntary activity.

― Community development as a component of the shaping and delivery of services has a long history, but suffered through the years of politically-contrived public expenditure cuts and austerity.

― Notions of community empowerment already enshrined in law ought to be compatible with the decentralisation of public services and bottom-up community partnership and control.

― Community hubs could offer a physical base for a model of public service based on relationships at local level, local networks and partnerships, and local democracy.

― The National Care Service that Scotland needs could be managed and delivered at local level through community hubs.

― Just as the 1939-1945 World War crisis led to visions of a different kind of world in the peace to follow, so should we be similarly ambitious in our vision of our country post-pandemic.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Community-Hubs.pdf

Keywords

Community hubs

Community empowerment

National Care Service

Language English

Empty Promise?

Stephen Richard — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 20:59:24 +0000

Empty Promise?

Primary Author or Creator

Marion Macleod

Stephen Richard Sun, 09/12/2021 - 21:59

Additional Author(s) / Creators

Common Weal

Date Published

Thu, 08/05/2021 - 12:00

Category

Social welfare

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

The Promise is the key driver of the Scottish Government’s policy in relation to family support and out-of-home care for children. It is largely based on information drawn from the views and opinions of people who have experience of care – but research data and other empirical evidence has being given lesser prominence in creating policies.

This has led to an emphasis on responding to whichever issues arise from those expressing views rather than developing strategies based on the overall political, economic and social context in which problems arise.

The key role of public services in bringing about the extent of change needed should be strongly emphasised and the critical contribution that the social work profession can and does make should receive greater priority. In addition, the application of research knowledge and sustained commitment to workforce development are critical components of an effective approach.

Instead the strategy often feels like it is based on responding to subjective feelings with value-based language. That this work is disconnected from the work on a National Care Service makes little sense – a National Care Service could be pivotal in providing holistic and integrated support to children and their families.

More details

― Many of the actions the Scottish Government proposes through The Promise are somewhat peripheral in terms of achieving major systemic change. In contrast, some fundamental problems are barely, or only superficially, referenced.

― A childhood compromised by severe and sustained adversity, or by persistent disruption and unsettlement, is likely to reduce the chances of positive and optimistic life outcomes in adulthood.

― The separation of social work with children from support for adults adds another unnecessary layer of complexity and results in families receiving services in an inconsistent, fragmented and uncoordinated way.

― The changing pattern of out-of-home care also should be recognised. More and more children are being cared for within their extended families. Kinship carers should receive adequate financial assistance but should also have access to the information, advice and support that enables them to give the best possible care.

― The Promise may have worthy intentions but it offers few imaginative or sufficiently far-reaching ideas to achieve the fundamental realignment to which it aspires.

― A road map without a clear direction of travel, that underestimates the distance to be travelled and that overlooks obstacles to be overcome along the route is, unfortunately, likely to lead to the wrong destination.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Empty-Promise.pdf

Keywords

Child care

Children

Social work

National Care Service

Language English

Common Weal's Manifesto for a National Care Service

Stephen Richard — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 08:40:47 +0000

Common Weal's Manifesto for a National Care Service

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal Care Reform Group

Stephen Richard Tue, 08/17/2021 - 09:40

Date Published

Wed, 01/27/2021 - 12:00

Category

Health

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

In this Manifesto, released ahead of the Scottish Government’s Independent Review of Adult Social Care the group lays out the principles of care that should be met by any proposed blueprint for Care reform and will be followed up in due course with a comprehensive blueprint for an NCS that would meet these principles and align with the values of Common Weal.

More details

The Covid crisis has shown up the failings of the social care system in Scotland as never before and the need for a new National Care Service alongside the NHS. Common Weal submitted a draft set of principles for a National Care Service to the Independent Review of Adult Social Care under Derek Feeley which is due to report by the end of January 2021. Common Weal has now refined and developed those principles into a Manifesto for a National Care Service which it believes should be used to judge the recommendations of the Adult Care Review. Common Weal’s Manifesto goes beyond the remit of the Adult Social Care Review and calls for care to be considered as a whole, cradle to grave, children as well as adults. In setting up the Adult Care Review, CW believes the Scottish Government missed an opportunity to end the fragmentation of social care and also to build on the recommendations of the Independent Care Review for Children.

If adopted, the principles in the manifesto would result in:

– All care being not for profit

– Care provision being free at the point of use, like the NHS

– Care and support being provided to all who need it, reversing the cuts since the impositions of austerity

– The current care system being transformed through a recognition that relationships are central to what makes good care, not a tick list of tasks

– Care provision becoming far more preventive, reversing the trend to focus on those with “priority” needs

– Care provision being designed from the bottom up, instead of the top down

– The entire workforce being paid local authority rates and being properly trained

– Service Users, Informal Carers and the workforce being given control where it matters, instead of the current tokenistic emphasis on rights

Common Weal believes these principles reflect the aspirations that many people in Scotland have for a new National Care Service. Common Weal has serious concerns about the extent to which the recommendations of the Feeley Review will deliver any of those aspirations which what has prompted us to publish the manifesto now.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Manifesto-for-a-National-Car…

Keywords

Health care

National Care Service

Aged care

Disabled care

Language English

Better than This

Stephen Richard — Sat, 31 Jul 2021 07:25:57 +0000

Better than This

Primary Author or Creator

Common Weal

Stephen Richard Sat, 07/31/2021 - 08:25

Alternative Published Date

2021

Category

Type of Resource

Policy Paper

Fast Facts

Resilient Recovery. We must emerge from the Covid pandemic in a way that fixes the problems raised by the crisis, fixes the problems evident before the crisis and makes us resilient; a green new deal; a new democracy; a national care service; Land reform; housing revolution; Controlling our own energy; better banking; and a focus on independence,.to future crisis like the climate emergency.

More details

KEY POINTS

― Resilient Recovery. We must emerge from the Covid pandemic in a way that fixes the problems raised by the crisis, fixes the problems evident before the crisis and makes us resilient to future crisis like the climate emergency. Based on our Resilience series.

― Green New Deal. Averting the climate emergency means more than just hitting a “net zero” target. It is also about making our economies sustainable in so many other ways and doing so in a way that reduces inequality and hardship. Based on Our Common Home Plan.

― A New Democracy. Scotland is the least locally democratic country in Europe and the institutions of our Government are frayed and strained in many places. We should develop a functioning system of local democracy, a Citizens’ Chamber to oversee Parliament and improve transparency at all levels of government.

― A National Care Service. Scotland needs a National Care Service that matches the ambition of the National Health Service, that is fully publicly owned, free at the point of need and can offer full training and proper pay to all staff. See our papers on the impact of Covid on Care Homes, our submission to the Feeley Review, the Manifesto for an NCS and our proposals to reform Social Work.

― Land Reform. Fewer than 500 people own half of Scotland. 700,000 acres are owned by tax haven companies. We can’t build our rural economies or fight climate change if we can’t access the land under our feet. Land Reform must happen now. See our Land Reform Week for more information.

― Housing Revolution. Scotland’s housing sector is badly broken. We don’t build anywhere near enough social housing, which allows private rents to skyrocket. The houses we do build are cold and expensive to heat, we can’t access the land to build them at affordable rates and the way we tax buildings is based on valuations more than a quarter of a century out of date.

― Taking Control of Our Energy. Scotland’s potential for renewable energy generation is world-leading but we aren’t yet making the best of it. Common Weal has produced a wealth of papers on the changes that need to happen to reach that potential.

― Better Banking. Scottish communities were being cut off from banking and basic financial services even before the pandemic. This trend has only accelerated. Without those services, local economies cannot function and the communities are soon left behind. We have a blueprint for a publicly-owned, mutually-controlled bank that could support all communities in Scotland.

And finally, the next Parliament will almost certainly see the topic of independence intensify. Everything we’ve suggested above can be at least started using the powers of devolution but to complete the job – especially the Green New Deal – Scotland will need to become independent and will need to do it right. Should the government in Westminster seek to oppose an independence referendum, then we must have a plan to make one happen regardless.

Resource Address (URL)

https://commonweal.scot/policies/better-than-this/

Keywords

Coronavirus Support

Scottish Independence

Housing

National Care Service

Housing

Green new deal

Climate Emergency

Language English