Tag Archives: Learning difficulties
Change in the law is needed to protect vulnerable people
Care workers also deserve better pay and training to prevent future cases of abuse and neglect
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Jonathan Wheeler
- Guardian Professional,
Calls to press ahead with plans to hold corporate bodies – boards, directors and senior managers – to account for any abuse or neglect that is found to have taken place in care homes and hospitals are no surprise. However, all those who work in the sector will know that unlimited fines and criminal sanctions is not enough.
Speaking in parliament last week, Paul Burstow MP, the former care services minister, introduced a new bill to amend the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to include a new offence of corporate neglect. He said the “new law would act as a deterrent” and all health and social care professionals will be hoping this is true. They will also probably be pleased by the apparent pace of change, coming so soon after the findings of the Winterbourne View investigation were published.
As an abuse lawyer who regularly handles claims on behalf of children and vulnerable adults who have been resident in care homes or other institutions, I have heard too many accounts of abuse that for some reason or other have been unheeded by those in charge. This is unacceptable and a change in the law is urgently needed to address this.
Target culture ‘knocks care out of nursing’
Target culture ‘knocks care out of nursing’ says expert as he warns workers are unable to stand up to abuse
- Professor Keith Brown criticises target-driven workplace culture
- He is currently overhauling training received by Britain’s care professionals
- Said that staff find it easier to ‘turn a blind’ to abuse in care homes
By John Stevens
PUBLISHED: 23:48, 1 January 2013 | UPDATED: 08:14, 2 January 201
A generation of nurses and carers have had their compassion ‘knocked out of them’ by a blindly target-driven workplace culture, an expert has warned.
An obsession with targets and jargon is stifling their innate desire to care for patients and care home residents, Professor Keith Brown said.
The professor, who is in the process of overhauling the training received by Britain’s care professionals, said many workers felt unable to stand up to abuse if they saw others mistreating patients.
He pointed to the example of the abuse scandal at the Winterbourne View private hospital in Bristol, which he said showed how those not perpetrating abuse had found it easier to ‘turn a blind eye’.
Phoenix Centre in Mile Cross rises from the flames
Computers for Carers donate PC
Tom Bristow, Reporter Monday, December 24, 2012
12:00 PM
Children’s laughter, balloons and presents filled the hall of a Mile Cross community centre on Saturday – just seven days after it was attacked by arsonists.
The message from the Phoenix Centre as it hosted six-year-old Sade Woollard’s birthday party was clear – we have risen from the ashes.
Christmas lights, music and games replaced the ash, smoke and flames of last weekend when the centre was set alight and partially destroyed.
Sade’s mother, Charmain, said her daughter had been in tears during the week at the thought that her first big birthday party would be cancelled.
