Category Archives: Carers

Compulsory training for Care home staff to protect elderly

March 9, 2013   Carers, Older care

Care home staff to have compulsory training under government plans to protect elderly

Care home staff will be forced to undergo compulsory training for the first time under government plans to protect the elderly from abuse and neglect, The Telegraph can disclose.

Residents and their relatives will be able to comment on services and score them

By , Political Correspondent

9:58PM GMT 08 Mar 2013

The lack of basic requirements for training care workers is leaving frail pensioners in the hands of staff who have “no idea what they are doing”, Norman Lamb, the health minister, warned.

Proposals expected within weeks will outline national minimum standards for preparing new recruits to work in nursing homes. Carers who help with tasks such as washing and dressing elderly people in their own homes will also be required to undertake the training.

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For families who care for children of friends or relatives

March 9, 2013   Carers, kinship carer

High Court ruling ‘could mean extra money for carers who look after relatives’ children’

Thousands of carers who look after relatives’ children could be paid as much as double the financial support they currently receive after a landmark High Court judgment today.

 

The Royal Courts of Justice, London.

Mr Justice Males paid tribute to the “unsung heroines of our society” as he ruled that a council was wrong to pay more money to foster parents who were unrelated to the youngsters they cared for than those who brought up the children of family or friends.

The case was brought by a woman who is the registered foster mother of two nephews and a niece, who are aged seven, 14 and 15, and all of whom have serious learning difficulties and emotional problems.

She complained that Tower Hamlets council in East London was paying her less to help look after the children than an unrelated foster parent would have received.

The judge concluded today that the local authority’s payment policies discriminated against people who fostered children to whom they were related.

The solicitor who represented the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said the judgment could also benefit many other families who look after children of friends or relatives.

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International Women’s Day: Who cares?

March 8, 2013   Carers, dementia, Older care

An older working carer reviews her experience in a changing world by Maria Parsons

Friday, March 8, 2013
12:44 AM

Maria Parsons looks at the issue of carers in her essay for The International Longevity Centre-UK (ILC-UK).

Maria Parsons is committed to improving services for older people and their carers. A social worker, academic and policy lead with health, social care and housing, formerly Director of Oxford and London Dementia Services Development Centres, she is now Director of the Creative Dementia Arts Network (CDAN).

International Women’s Day offers a rare opportunity to formally recognise women’s care of older people and to place ‘who cares’ firmly back onto the political agenda. For amidst the policy debates and government responses to Dilnot, scant attention, if any, has being paid to the ‘who’ of care funding; specifically on ‘whom’ and ‘what’ will the funds made available be spent?

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