Estimated studying time: 13 minutes
The extra I study in regards to the world of grownup social care, the extra I’m in awe of the superb work that every individual does to empower and help folks to dwell their finest lives. To be concerned in even a small manner feels actually particular.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen and skilled important modifications because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The impression on social care has been immense, but it surely has additionally highlighted the pressing want for improved sector help given the important function they serve in society. With service deficiencies magnified by the pandemic along with a renewed appreciation for care employees, points can not be ignored.
It was my pleasure to speak to Annie Gunner Logan, CEO of the Coalition of Care and Help Suppliers in Scotland (CCPS) about her background and the way CCPS helps the social care sector. Discussing how social help providers have developed over time, we additionally discover the place these providers are heading contemplating the present local weather in Scotland.
We dwell in an ageing society. However what does that actually imply?
Within the subsequent 20 years the steadiness between younger and outdated will shift to the purpose the place there might be one aged individual for each two folks of working age. The problem this presents is two-fold, a discount in members of the family in a position to present help and a smaller pool {of professional} carers.
TL Tech is a Sensible Houses Options supplier with a distinction. We assist folks get one of the best out of good house applied sciences and create distinctive house environments to satisfy their wants and price range. Our imaginative and prescient is to “create a house that cares for you as you age”.
Sensible house applied sciences have the facility to rework lives, particularly for the susceptible in our society. This weblog sequence might be trying to showcase the alternatives, discover out extra in regards to the folks working on this subject and the way we are able to create a world the place “good meets variety”®.
How did you get into working in social care?
Like most individuals, I ended up the place I’m at the moment by way of a circuitous route. I can’t say that I left college eager to get into social care, however right here I’m 40 years later. After finding out languages at college, I had a little bit of a short-lived educational profession in France. Throughout this time I realised that my actual pursuits had been in social coverage and the way governments responded to social wants.
I made a decision to retrain and qualify in social coverage. My first step was to safe a job as an info officer with the Scottish Affiliation of Psychological Well being (SAMH). I moved from there to the NHS the place I labored on a challenge referred to as Well being Search Scotland. As one of many first tasks to help folks to entry details about their well being straight over the telephone quite than by means of a medical skilled, this grew to become one of many precursors to what’s now NHS 24. From there, I went to work for an organisation referred to as Kids in Scotland, which is the nationwide company for kids’s providers.
Whereas I used to be on the NHS a brand new organisation referred to as Group Care Suppliers Scotland – now referred to as the Coalition of Care and Help Suppliers in Scotland – caught my consideration. Fashioned to symbolize social care suppliers within the non-profit and voluntary sector, they work to help and guarantee an surroundings that champions high quality of care. In order that’s CCPS, and I’ve been there for simply over 20 years.
You should have seen plenty of modifications over that point then?
Once I first got here into grownup social care within the late nineties it was a extremely transformational time because of the giant closure program of long-stay hospitals that started within the late eighties. Earlier than that folks with studying disabilities and psychological well being issues as a rule had been institutionalised. There was a strong human rights motion that recognized these establishments as a human rights disaster – in the event you don’t have a medical should be in a hospital, you shouldn’t be in a single. As a substitute, folks had been supported to dwell in group primarily based alternate options by social care suppliers, nearly all of which had been designed by voluntary organisations. Many CCPS members had been there on the time, doing this extraordinarily necessary work.
Whereas group residing was an enchancment over earlier hospital care preparations, folks’s selections had been restricted and their help wants had been determined for them. We’re nonetheless on a journey to empower people to make their very own selections and design their very own help. When the Social Care Self-directed Help Act (2013) was launched, what didn’t occur was a change to the techniques surrounding it, significantly the procurement techniques. Nevertheless, it’s since been realised how damaging commodification and underfunding is to how social care help is delivered. For social care to correctly empower people, we all know that it’s not about them being in providers in any respect, however for them to have the ability to personalise the help they obtain. That is what self-directed help is all about and though it has been fairly a protracted journey, the subsequent interval goes to be probably the most thrilling!
What’s the most rewarding a part of your job?
For me personally, the folks I work with at CCPS are probably the most rewarding a part of my job. We’re a membership affiliation with over 80 members throughout the third sector and nonprofit suppliers of social care in Scotland. You’ll be very laborious pressed to discover a extra inspiring group of leaders. The CEOs of every of those organisations are completely extraordinary. Their dedication and dedication to empowering the people who their providers help is exceptional. Being part of one thing that modifications folks’s lives is, in itself, very rewarding. That’s what nourishes me on this function.
Inform us extra about CCPS, and the organisation’s function.
We assist to establish and symbolize the pursuits and issues of members in order that they will do their finest work and maximise their impression to satisfy social wants. A giant a part of that is serving to to distil what their widespread pursuits are. While you’ve bought over 80 completely different organisations who’re all unbiased of one another and report back to their very own board of governors, then that’s fairly a process in itself. The agenda for all of those organisations coalesces round environmental components just like the sustainability of funding for social care, coverage and observe improvement, laws and laws.
We spend a big quantity of our time scrutinising coverage and reviewing draft laws to grasp the way it would possibly impression our members. Is it going to assist them do their finest work or not? Whether it is, then we’ll assist develop it; if it isn’t, then we problem it.
We additionally present a platform for members to talk to one another and be extra collaborative. That is necessary as a result of social care is a really aggressive surroundings. We facilitate and supply the chance for organisations to work collectively on the problems that they’ve in widespread. Up to now this has been difficult, however I feel we’re undoubtedly shifting from a tradition of competitors in direction of that of collaboration.
How has the final 12 months been for CCPS and your members?
I can’t lie, it has been very difficult. When Covid struck, any plans we had principally went out the window as the whole organisation needed to pivot in direction of supporting our members with the fast modifications: serving to members entry PPE, upkeep of their providers throughout lockdown, testing and vaccinations in addition to supporting household contact in a lockdown surroundings.
Social care has completely been on the frontline of all of this, significantly in care properties. Nevertheless, now we’re on the stage of speaking about how we’re going to use this expertise to make issues higher and construct a restoration for social care. That is already underway with the cupboard secretary commissioning Derek Feeley, who was the NHS chief government, to assessment social care in Scotland. He revealed his report in February which is improbable! We had been in a position to present enter by means of our personal a long time of study, due to this fact plenty of his suggestions replicate what we’ve got been saying.
Covid was an enormous problem, but it surely has uncovered a number of the flaws within the system and now I feel there’s a shared dedication to do one thing about it. Quite frustratingly, some folks in positions of authority and political energy appeared to see the issues for the primary time in the course of the pandemic; whereas folks like me throughout the sector have been banging on about them for many years! The truth that they’ve now acknowledged these and need to do one thing about them although is what issues.
What’s fascinating is that every one the political events have now included social care inside their manifestos and discuss in regards to the urgency of implementing system modifications. We determined to host a pre-election hustings for the primary time as a result of social care was so strongly featured throughout the events. That in itself is a extremely good signal. I feel it will be fairly troublesome now for any get together or authorities to de-prioritise social care at this level.
Are there any initiatives that you’re at the moment engaged on?
There might be a little bit of a wait now to see what the federal government needs to do in regards to the Feeley report suggestions, however we’re ploughing on.
‘Massive Concepts’ was one thing that we began pre-Feeley. For a very long time, it has been felt that the aggressive tendering processes for social care doesn’t work. ‘Massive Concepts’ take a look at the choice fashions to the present aggressive market. The report isn’t a blueprint of what ought to be carried out, or a brand new system to impose on social care suppliers. We’re making an attempt to create an surroundings and tradition the place folks work collectively to seek out their very own alternate options and options.
The opposite huge initiative we’re concerned in for the time being is round what we name honest work. The pay and standing of social care employees could be very low as a result of the aggressive tendering and commissioning surroundings has created a really Amazon like surroundings. In plenty of house care, folks receives a commission by the minute, which is loopy. There isn’t a single different public service that does it this manner. The social care workforce is undervalued and underpaid.
We’re at the moment having at the least 4 conferences per week about this. The chair of the honest work in social care working group will publish the findings to the cupboard secretary on the finish of Could, with suggestions for issues like minimal phrases and circumstances for social care workforce, minimal requirements for efficient voice for the workforce and the ruling out of misuse of zero hour contracts.
What are your views on using expertise in grownup social care?
CCPS has a digital program the place we’re making an attempt to help organisations to embrace and undertake expertise. There are three ranges, the primary one is at a service stage with what I’d name the devices, resembling telecare and assisted residing. Covid has accelerated us into adopting expertise at a higher velocity, significantly digital communication strategies like Zoom to attach with folks after we can’t be there in individual.
Pre-covid, one of many largest drivers for implementing expertise options was saving cash. The notion was persons are costly and devices are usually not, however I feel that this can be a false impression. Covid has additionally taught us the boundaries of expertise, as it may possibly by no means be a substitute for human interplay, particularly when that’s really what folks want and need.
The second stage is how digital techniques may also help organisations run extra effectively. We help our members to have a look at issues like workforce rota administration, funds, logistics, and many others. The final stage is knowledge, which is how digital can be utilized strategically to tell and enhance providers. Knowledge might be probably the most difficult bit due to the complexity of managing the entry and interfaces. How will we create knowledge platforms that everyone can entry and feed into in order that we’ve got a holistic system?
Necessities for reporting are sometimes set earlier than anybody has actually thought by means of how they’re going for use. And due to the tradition that we’re by which could be very threat averse, with micromanagement and low ranges of belief, plenty of social care suppliers monitor at a really positive stage of element. They really feel I’ve bought to gather this knowledge as a result of in the future I could be referred to as to account for it or I would like to have the ability to present how I’ve spent the cash, how I’ve used the sources, what number of hours of help has been used, and many others. A number of this knowledge simply “sits in a drawer”.
The important thing query to be requested right here is does the information assist make social care extra sustainable? Is it going to empower folks to make their very own selections? Is it going to result in higher high quality? Once more, Covid has given us all a kick up the bottom in regards to the worth of digital, but additionally I feel it ought to make us rather more considerate about how, why and to what finish we use it
What recommendation do you’ve for folks thinking about shifting into working in social care?
Do it, simply do it.
Again in 2005 to 2006, Willie Roe did a assessment of social work providers, together with social care. He referred to as his report ‘Altering Lives’ as a result of that’s what it’s about. A number of public providers are about fixing issues or attaining issues. When you’re within the fireplace service, you set fires out. When you’re within the police it’s about arrest ranges or group security. Within the NHS, it’s about cures & interventions. With social care, that’s actually not what we’re about. It’s not like “oh, right here’s an issue. I’m going to repair it”.
Social care is about standing alongside individuals who have challenges of their lives. Generally that’s a incapacity, their psychological well being, an impairment they had been born with or one thing that occurred to them resembling home violence or an habit. In social care you’re supporting people who find themselves coping with huge challenges to have the ability to have interaction in society, identical to everybody else. In social care you’re standing alongside that individual and also you’re supporting them to dwell their finest life. Generally you’ll be able to assist them to beat these challenges and generally you’ll be able to’t, however you’re nonetheless standing alongside them to assist change their life for the higher.
I began off this piece saying how in awe I’m of the work being carried out in social care. What makes this much more superb is that almost all of that is delivered by voluntary organisations who’re moved to make significant enhancements to folks’s lives. Think about if all of us had this a lot ardour for the work we do?
This piece may have simply been twice as lengthy. I feel this interview has been one of the crucial insightful conversations I’ve ever had and I hope you’ve loved attending to know Annie and the work that CCPS do. A number of what Annie spoke about has additionally been highlighted in my earlier interviews with Donald Macaskill from Scottish Care and Linda Grey from Encourage PTL. Do examine these out on the weblog!
If you wish to hold up-to-date with Annie and the CCPS actions checkout their web site.
When you favored this put up, we additionally share a weekly round-up of fascinating tech, wellbeing and social care information which you would possibly need to discover. Please try our web site for extra technical recommendation and our Alexa tutorials on our Youtube channel. You can too subscribe to our mailing checklist to be notified when we’ve got new posts and help materials accessible.
