Category Archives: Carers

Mencap welcomes Government SEN proposals

September 5, 2012   Carers, learning difficulties, special needs

Learning disability charity Mencap has welcomed the Government’s publication of draft provisions to improve the support for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN).

by on September 5, 2012 in News

The new publication follows on from the Government’s proposals to reform provision for children and young people with SEN in the green paper Support and Aspiration, published in March 2011, and the subsequent Next Steps document published in May 2012.

These new draft provisions provide for:

  • A new duty for joint commissioning which will require local authorities and health bodies to take joint responsibility for providing services
  • A requirement on local authorities to publish a local offer of services for disabled children and young people and those with SEN
  • New protections for young people aged 16-25 in further education and a stronger focus on preparing them for adulthood
  • Parents and young people, for the first time, to be entitled to have a personal budget
  • Further education colleges, for the first time, and all academies, including free schools, to have the same duties as maintained schools to safeguard the education of children and young people with SEN.
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Trial for ‘Big Brother’ care system

September 5, 2012   Carers, Older care

A benign “Big Brother” house that watches over its old, disabled or vulnerable residents is undergoing trials in the UK.

About a dozen homes in Scotland have been fitted with an array of sensors, motion detectors, microphones and digital cameras linked to intelligent software.

If the system spots anything unusual that may indicate a problem, it sends an alarm signal to a network of on-call carers.

It not only spots dramatic events, such as a fall, but also subtle changes in behaviour over time – for instance, going to bed unusually early or skipping meals. Video footage is password protected and can only be viewed by authorised individuals.

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Nurses are being forced to clean toilets and mop hospital floors on top of their patient care duties

September 4, 2012   Carers, hospital
  • More than half of NHS nurses say cleaning services for their ward are inadequate
  • One in five say their trust has cut back on cleaning in the last year

By Rob Preece

PUBLISHED: 01:38, 4 September 2012 | UPDATED: 08:52, 4 September 2012

 

Burden: A ward is deep-cleaned at the Royal Free Hospital in London. A survey suggests that NHS nurses across the country are having to carry out more and more cleaning tasks themselvesNurses looking after patients in hospitals have also been forced to disinfect toilets and mop floors as hard-up NHS trusts cut spending on cleaning.

More than half of NHS nurses told researchers that they believed cleaning services for their ward were inadequate, with about a fifth saying their hospital trust had made cuts in the last year.

The survey of 1,000 nurses and health assistants revealed a third had cleaned toilets or mopped floors in the last 12 months.

Burden: A ward is deep-cleaned at the Royal Free Hospital in London. A survey suggests that NHS nurses across the country are having to carry out more and more cleaning tasks themselves

Some also reported having to clean corridors, computers, nursing stations and offices.

Two in five respondents said they had cleaned a bed area or single room vacated by a patient who was infectious.

Four in five said they had performed the same task following the discharge of a non-infectious patient.

Worryingly, almost three quarters of respondents said they had not been trained for such cleaning practices.

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