Highlights from the Visit of Alex Burghart, the Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar to You & I Care.

On 14^th/June/2019 we had a visit from the Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar, Honourable Alex Burghart. The You & I Care team was delighted to share caring experiences with the Member of Parliament.

We had a conversation about several challenges facing the care industry and gave insight on some of You & I Care’s initiatives aimed at changing the face of ageing and caring.

We had conversations around,

Staffing: It has often been reported that Staff shortages are a ‘relentless challenge’ for home care providers in many places in the United Kingdom. On ground, this is a real and sad reality that negatively impacts on continuity of care, and with more adverse effects on care quality. Coupled with lower fees paid by some local authorities, home care providers are rendered extremely fragile and faced with squeezed margins, unable to maintain and sustain the required pool of Carers.

Commissioning of care: This involves challenges where the allocated time is not enough as per the Service User’s needs. This is because of limited funding which affects how care packages are allocated. Such commissioning challenges thus undermine the quality of care and negatively affect the wellbeing of Carers.

Stigmatisation of the caring role: Oftentimes, the caring role is stigmatised and overlooked as a low level kind of job. We had a conversation on how this negatively affects the social care industry for example when it comes to attracting staff.

The industry’s inability to attract young people: Due to stigmatisation of the caring role and lack of proper understanding about being a Carer, the industry faces challenges in attracting young people. It is thus essential for young people to understand that caring is a career like any other, with great prospects of career progression and growth. Starting off as a Carer you can progress to a field supervisor, care or compliance coordinator, registered manager, a provider, care inspector, health inspector commissioner and much more. Also, it is important for young people to appreciate that one can be a Carer and still strike a balance between work and their own life. Carers can have fun filled lives, carers can be outgoing, Carers can be young, pretty and stylish.

You & I Care’s campaign to change the face of ageing and caring: You & I Care aims to change the face of ageing and caring.  We embarked on a journey of sensitising young people about the caring role and the career progression in the industry and this is to be achieved through several campaigns like visiting schools and colleges, taking up apprentices and guiding them through career progression. The ability of the care industry to attract staff would greatly improve the quality of care..

We were glad as a team, to have an opportunity to engage with a leader who not only is part of the legislative process that shapes social care policies, but also empathises with, and appreciates the growing importance of caring.