The care sector is facing some of the biggest challenges in the history of social care. Decades of underfunding and successive governments neglecting their responsibilities for older people have left a two-tier system. Those who can afford to pay for their own care are able to choose high-quality, state-of-the-art care homes and those who rely on state funding are often sent to homes commissioned on the cheapest price rather than quality of care, which is often delivered in buildings that are 40-50 years old and due for demolition and a rebuild.
The government must urgently end the lack of proper funding for social care and ensure that local authorities pay the right price for the care they purchase rather than using their power to drive down prices. This money could then be used to invest in the facilities as well as the care being delivered.
The likelihood of a second wave seems high. The imagined “protective ring” that the Minister for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said was placed around social care now needs to be implemented for real. We urgently need guaranteed and reliable weekly testing of our care teams and residents as well as a further injection into the Infection Control Fund to financially support care homes to cope with the huge increase in costs of staffing and PPE. Also, further support will be needed to pay those that need to shield for health reasons and therefore will be unable to work.
Care costs have continued to rise over the years for a number of reasons. An above inflation rise in wages for carers and competition for nurses and high and higher standards expected by regulators and the public have meant that care fees have risen significantly and the government have been prevaricating on paying for care fees so that older people are not forced to sell their homes to pay for their care.
Asian families are often reluctant to send their parents to care homes for several reasons, many of them cultural. There is an expectation from the parents that their children will look after them in their old age and there is still a stigma in the Asian community that you “sent” your parent to a care home because you couldn’t look after them. Asian elders often don’t speak fluent English, have different dietary requirements and families are afraid that they won’t feel at home and that is why you will still not find many Asian residents in care homes in the UK. More care homes for Asians need to be built so that older people and their children feel comfortable that their loved ones will be going to live in communities with like-minded individuals.
Hallmark Care Homes
Hallmark Care Homes’ vision is to continue to buy land to build high-quality, award-winning care homes through our development company Savista Developments. We have also started to build and operate care villages through our newly formed venture, Santhem Residences which was named after and honours my parents Santosh and Hemraj Goyal. We have also set up the Hallmark Care Homes Foundation to support carers who fall on hard times as well as support research and innovation in improving care into the next decade.
