ADASS: More than half a million people now waiting for social care
13/05/2022 Over half a million people are waiting for social care and there has been a dramatic increase in the number of hours of home care that could not be delivered. |
Training carers key priority for social care sector
12/05/2022 Reform and training carers are two of the key priorities for the social care sector during the year ahead, according to the annual report of the CSW Lyn Romeo. |
Government confirms it won’t appeal COVID care home ruling
05/05/2022 Government won't appeal a court decision which found the policy of discharging patients from hospitals to care homes at the start of the pandemic was unlawful. |
Advisers call for minimum pay to ease care workforce crisis
27/04/2022 The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has said the Government should foot the bill for a minimum rate of £10.50 per hour for care workers in England. |
Social care cap amendment threatens ‘crippling care costs’
22/04/2022 MPs in Yorkshire, the Midlands and North East should vote down the social care cap amendment to save poorer constituents from ‘crippling' costs, charities say. |
Welsh councils receive £10m to support domiciliary care
06/04/2022 A further £10m will be provided to local authorities in Wales to support domiciliary care and increase service provision, the Welsh government has announced. |
Auditors warn of social care direct payments ‘lottery’
06/04/2022 Direct payments for adult social care in Wales help residents maintain their independence but implementation is inconsistent, auditors say. |
Over 30% of care jobs pay below living wage
31/03/2022 Workers within the care sector in England are more likely to earn less than the real living wage compared to those in Scotland and Wales, research reveals. |
Councils offered £75,000 grant to test digital housing services
30/03/2022 Councils are being invited to apply for grants of £75,000 to test out with older people which technology tools and digital housing services work best for them. |
Five councils in England to trial social care charging reform
28/03/2022 The Government has announced that five local authorities in England will implement a new adult social care charging reform system which caps the cost of care. |
Council chiefs warn care guidance burdens ‘overstretched staff’
28/03/2022 Council leaders have criticised the Government’s care funding guidance which requires overstretched councils to produce ‘detailed’ market sustainability plans. |
Javid tells care providers digital records ‘basic responsibility’
24/03/2022 Digital records are a ‘basic responsibility’, health secretary Sajid Javid says as he announces 80% of care providers will have digital care records by 2024. |
County council to close four care homes
24/03/2022 Gloucestershire CC is considering a proposal to close four care homes due to a combination of factors such as a lack of demand and staffing difficulties. |
Council chiefs call for ‘urgent’ extension of COVID fund
24/03/2022 Council leaders and directors of public health have called for an urgent extension of local outbreak management funding to help with rising COVID-19 rates. |
Councils need anti-hoarding teams, researchers say
21/03/2022 Local authority housing officers should be given better training or even specialist anti-hoarding teams to deal with hoarders, researchers say. |
Government launches Liberty Protection Safeguards consultation
18/03/2022 Government has launched a consultation on Liberty Protection Safeguards to ensure the freedom of people who may need decision-making assistance is protected. |
UK ‘sleepwalked’ into dysfunctional children’s social care market
10/03/2022 Local authorities need more support to help them find suitable placements for children in foster care and children’s homes, a new report says. |
Warnings over unmet care needs
01/03/2022 Social care services could be put under further pressure due to unmet needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research. |
Councils to have access to new online PPE portal
01/03/2022 Local authorities are to be given access to free personal protective equipment (PPE) through a new website, the Government has announced. |
Dealing with complaints became ‘casualty of crisis’, Ombudsman says
24/02/2022 COVID-19 ‘magnified stresses’ that councils were already faced with before the pandemic and dealing with complaints became a ‘casualty’, report says. |
Councillors urged to ensure short-term funding reaches social care frontline
11/02/2022 Councils have been urged to access short-term funding from the Government to boost the pay of social care workers. |
Number of vulnerable children in unregulated settings rises by 450%
10/02/2022 The number of applications to deprive children of their liberty in unregulated placements has risen dramatically over the last three years, new figures reveal. |
Over 90% of unpaid carers feel ignored by Government
09/02/2022 The vast majority of adult unpaid carers feel ignored by the Government, a new survey has revealed. |
White paper aims to improve links between social care and the NHS
09/02/2022 The Government has outlined plans to bring local government and the NHS closer together under its new Integration White Paper. |
London council first to publish new charter to protect care home staff
08/02/2022 Southwark Council has agreed a new charter that will improve the working terms and conditions for all residential care providers in the borough. |
Social care cap amendment to ‘disproportionately’ hit North
07/02/2022 A proposed Government amendment to the cap on social care costs will impact those with modest levels of wealth in the North and the Midlands, new study shows. |
Rural health services need ‘levelling up’, MPs say
01/02/2022 Rural local authorities spend a disproportionately higher share of their budget on providing social care than their urban counterparts, MPs warn. |
Council care workers earn thousands of pounds a year less in real terms, says TUC
26/01/2022 Local government care workers earn £1,600 less a year in real terms compared to 2010, new analysis has revealed. |
Trust for children's services at Star Hobson council
25/01/2022 Bradford Council’s children’s services will be transferred to a not-for-profit trust following the tragic death of Star Hobson. |
Cornwall declares critical care incident
19/01/2022 Cornwall Council has declared a critical incident in adult social care. |
Half of councils forced to ration care, survey reveals
14/01/2022 Staff shortages have forced more than of councils in England to ration social care and support, a new survey has revealed. |
Staff shortages are ‘excessively high’, warn care providers
13/01/2022 Homecare providers are warning that they are having to refuse new requests for home care because of Omicron and ongoing staffing problems. |
Scottish councils pledge to deploy staff and capacity to social care services
13/01/2022 Scottish councils have warned some services may be paused or reduced in order to protect critical social care services. |
Council staff asked to provide care services amid workforce crisis
11/01/2022 Derbyshire County Council has asked its employees to help the local authority provide care services amid the UK-wide shortage of care staff. |
Council calls on staff to volunteer for social care roles
10/01/2022 North Yorkshire County Council has urged staff working in non-critical services to volunteer for social care roles due to the pressures caused by the spread of Omicron. |
Care providers call for ‘emergency army of volunteers’
06/01/2022 Independent care providers have called on the Government to create an emergency army of volunteers to help solve the social care staffing crisis. |
Extra £60m to support adult social care services
04/01/2022 Local authorities will receive an extra £60m to support the adult social care response to COVID-19 this month, the Government recently announced. |
Social care leaders warn of ‘national emergency’
23/12/2021 Leaders from the social care sector are urging people to take extra precautions to limit the spread of Omicron in order to protect adult social care services. |
Council chiefs welcome £300m social care funding
13/12/2021 Council leaders welcome a new package to protect the care sector this winter, but warned that long-term investment was needed to make social care sustainable. |
Connecting councils and providers to improve care services
10/12/2021 Amal Nawarathna explains how Barnet Council is using data and market insight to improve care quality assurance. |
Spielman: No silver bullet for children's social care
07/12/2021 Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has warned there is no ‘silver bullet’ to the long-term problems in the children’s social care sector. |
Social care White Paper ‘set up to fail’
01/12/2021 The local government sector has praised the ambition of the long-awaited adult social care reform White Paper, but warned it will not succeed without funding to meet current demand. |
Think tank warns of 'invisible crisis' in home care
01/12/2021 The social care sector in England has lost up to 50,000 workers in the past six months, new analysis has revealed. |
Social care services are 'rapidly deteriorating' directors warn
29/11/2021 Social care services are failing to help hundreds of thousands of older and disabled people, a new survey has warned today. |
Social care reform: what lies ahead?
25/11/2021 Sally Warren lays out four principles that should be at the centre of a ‘radically realistic’ White Paper on social care reform and asks if its vision will be the right one? |
Data and social care: how do we break down the barriers?
19/11/2021 Mark Robinson, chief innovation officer at Imosphere, considers how data can be utilised to support social care providers, service users and commissioners. |
Crisis talks: Government support urgently needed to tackle the social care sector recruitment crunch
16/11/2021 Kris Peach explores what the industry needs in order to tackle the worst workforce crisis in more than a decade. |
Care staff should receive £1,000 winter bonus, directors argue
16/11/2021 Social care workers in England should receive a £1,000 winter bonus to protect struggling services, leaders have said. |
Unpaid carers being 'pushed into poverty', warns charity
03/11/2021 Providing unpaid care is pushing thousands of families into poverty, with one in five worried they may not cope financially over the next 12 months, a charity has warned. |
We need to focus on outcomes not just services
02/11/2021 Stephen Muers explains how social impact investment using outcomes partnerships can help deliver more effective spending and new approaches. |
End ‘scandalously low fee rates’, say homecare providers
26/10/2021 Councils should be better funded and required to pay more for care, says the UK’s membership body for homecare providers. |
What does local government hope to get from the Spending Review?
25/10/2021 From a a multi-year funding settlement to fixing the social care crisis, William Eichler explores what local government is hoping to hear on Wednesday. |
Watchdog warns care services face a 'tsunami of unmet need'
22/10/2021 There could be a 'tsunami' of people not having the care they need unless action is taken to address staff shortages in social care, a watchdog has said today. |
Age UK warns 10% council tax hike would still not fix care
15/10/2021 Charity Age UK has warned council tax would need to go up by another 10% next year just to allow social care to ‘stand still’. |
Cheshire West and Chester Council to bring care services back in-house
14/10/2021 Cheshire West and Chester Council has approved plans to bring its own social care company back into the council. |
Government told to ‘invest’ in social care to solve recruitment crisis
13/10/2021 A new report has emphasised the importance of ‘properly’ rewarding care workers as figures reveal that adult social care providers are struggling to recruit and retain staff. |
Social care contributes £50.3bn to economy, study reveals
08/10/2021 The adult social care sector and its skilled workforce contributes billions of pounds to the English economy, according to a new report. |
Councils must recognise the threat to locally delivered social care
07/10/2021 The local government sector, and the bodies which represent it, need to switch from a stance that welcomes small steps, to one that recognises the existential threat that locally delivered social care now faces, argues Jessica Studdert. |
Johnson vows to ‘get care done’
06/10/2021 The Prime Minister delivered a speech peppered with quips but short on announcements at the Conservative Party Conference. |
Public health grant cuts run counter to levelling up, say experts
05/10/2021 Real terms cuts to local public health work against levelling up and the Government must boost funding after years of underinvestment, say two leading health organisations. |
Launch of far-reaching review into health and social care leadership
04/10/2021 Ministers have launched a review of health and social care leadership in England. |
Keeping patients out of hospital: Why one council is spending money on health tech
01/10/2021 A pre-pandemic vision in Stockport to invest in remote care is now having a big impact on preventing costly and distressing hospital admissions, and is keeping people supported at home. Mark Fitton explains how. |
A million extra health and social care staff needed in the next 10 years, says report
01/10/2021 More than 600,000 extra social care staff are needed in the next decade to meet the growing demand for care, according to new research. |
Local services will face £8bn funding blackhole by 2024, councils warn
01/10/2021 Council tax will have to rise by more than a quarter in the next three years to cover the shortfall in funding for local services, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned today. |
Social care system is 'levelling down' analysis warns
30/09/2021 The quality of social care is worse in the most deprived areas undermining the Government's levelling up agenda, new analysis has revealed. |
Call to give care staff priority access to fuel
28/09/2021 The Government has been urged to introduce emergency measures to ensure social care staff can get fuel for their cars. |
Social care plan 'contains far too little detail' warn councils
27/09/2021 Implementing the Government's cap on care costs will be an 'enormous undertaking' for councils, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned. |
Decade of improvement in life expectancy undone by pandemic, data reveals
24/09/2021 The pandemic has undone a decade of improvement in life expectancy, a health think tank has warned. |
County council leaders warn social care reforms ‘fall short’
16/09/2021 Social care reforms will protect more individuals from large care costs but will not improve access to care and could make local care markets ‘unsustainable’, county council leaders say. |
Welsh councils share £40m social care recovery fund
15/09/2021 Local authorities in Wales have been awarded £40m to help social care services overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic. |
Union warns of mental health crisis in care sector
15/09/2021 More than two-thirds of care workers (68%) have seen their mental health decline during the pandemic, according to the results of a new survey. |
Sutton Council's IoT pilot project
14/09/2021 David Grasty, head of digital strategy & portfolio for Kingston and Sutton Councils, outlines how in-home sensors have improved the safety of vulnerable residents living in social housing. |
Consultation on mandatory COVID vaccines launched
09/09/2021 The Government has launched a consultation on plans for staff in health and care settings in England to be required to have COVID-19 and flu vaccines. |
Directors warn people are waiting longer for care
08/09/2021 Directors of adult care services have faced a spike in demand over the summer months, according to new figures published today. |
Johnson announces plan for health and social care
07/09/2021 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made the first move towards honouring his commitment to reform adult social care with the announcement of a long-expected national insurance (NI) rise. |
Union warns mandatory vaccines will cause care home 'catastrophe'
06/09/2021 Mandatory COVID vaccines for care home workers will cause a staffing crisis that will overwhelm the sector, a trade union has warned. |
‘No evidence’ integration improves healthcare
03/09/2021 New analysis of health and care integration pilots has questioned the benefits they bring about. |
Scotland behind on housing-with-care provision
01/09/2021 Older people in Scotland are missing out on care options because the country is falling behind on housing-with-care provision, a new group has warned. |
'Levelling up home care' would save local authorities £1.1bn a year, says think tank
24/08/2021 Local authorities could save £1.1bn from their social care budgets if home care services were levelled up across England, new analysis has revealed. |
Yorkshire council calls for social care reform ‘as a matter of urgency’
19/08/2021 The Government needs to address the social care crisis ‘as a matter of urgency’, North Yorkshire County Council warns as it faces care staff shortages. |
Council agrees to refund care home top-up fees
19/08/2021 Dudley Council has agreed to refund care home top-up fees for families whose relatives were not offered an affordable placement. |
Call to invest £600m to avoid 'bed blocking' this winter
06/08/2021 Council and health leaders are calling for £600m to free up thousands of hospital beds this winter. |
Why ditching the checklist has helped us tackle homelessness in Plymouth
27/07/2021 Gary Wallace explains how Plymouth City Council has adopted a new way of managing public services: Human Learning Systems. |
Vaccinated social care staff no longer required to self-isolate
19/07/2021 Health leaders have been left divided by the Government’s announcement that fully vaccinated social care staff and NHS workers who have been told to self-isolate will be allowed to continue working. |
MPs call for urgent council finance reforms
19/07/2021 Councils should be given more flexibility to raise their own taxes and social care funding urgently needs to be reformed, MPs have said. |
Council criticised for increasing care admin costs 200%
15/07/2021 The London Borough of Bexley has agreed to revise its social care charging policy after the administration costs for one resident’s care increased 200%. |
Have social services been negligent?
14/07/2021 Saara Idelbi and Conor Monighan consider the liability of local authorities in negligence where it is argued that social services should have intervened more quickly to remove children from their family homes. |
Reserves used to meet ‘avalanche of need’
14/07/2021 A third of councils have resorted to using reserves to meet adult social care overspends, an extensive survey has found. |
St Helens MBC: Dream team looks to a bright future
12/07/2021 St Helens is reinventing itself with a new breed of council and radical projects that will revitalise the borough |
Support workers 'undervalued' by nearly £7k a year, warns report
09/07/2021 Frontline social care workers are paid nearly £7,000 less per year than their peers in equivalent positions in other public funded sectors, a new report has uncovered. |
IoT technology: Benefitting local authorities and councils
02/07/2021 Nick Sacke outlines some of the primary challenges being faced by local authorities and how technology can help. |
Councillors back call for social care priority in Government
25/06/2021 More than nine in 10 councillors have called on the Government to give greater priority and funding to social care, according to a new poll. |
Two million requests for care have been rejected in past two years
18/06/2021 Two million requests for care have been turned down by local councils since the Prime Minister pledged to 'fix social care', new research has revealed today. |
Ministers appear 'complacent' over care home closures, MPs warn
16/06/2021 The Government ‘seems complacent’ about the risk of care homes collapsing in the wake of the pandemic, MPs have warned today. |
Working in partnership to get more people with disabilities and complex needs into employment
14/06/2021 Cllr Lorraine Dean explains how a pilot partnership project with housebuilder and contractor, Durkan, has created a blueprint for supporting more people with disabilities and complex needs into employment. |
Staff burnout in social care and health at 'emergency level'
08/06/2021 Workforce burnout in social care and the NHS has reached an ‘emergency level’, MPs have warned today. |
Eight in 10 councils forced to overspend on children’s social care
03/06/2021 More than eight in 10 councils were forced to overspend on children's social care budgets last year due to soaring demand, new research has shown. |
Children’s social care services ‘creative’ during pandemic, study finds
03/06/2021 A new study has found that children’s social care services have been ‘flexible’ and ‘creative’ in their responses to supporting care leavers during the pandemic, but it also found COVID-19 has exposed fragility in current systems. |
CQC launches new ‘dynamic and flexible’ strategy
27/05/2021 The health and social care regulator, Care Quality Commission (CQC), has launched a new strategy which places more of an emphasis on how well local health and care systems are working and addressing local challenges. |
Councils to pilot new self-isolation support scheme
24/05/2021 Nine local authorities have been chosen to pilot new ways of supporting people needing to self-isolate. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.