Fantastic headline. Too unusual (and too good) a story to look too hard for morals but there something here about the desire for independence, isn’t there? #socialcare www.bbc.com/news/article...

Fair Pay In Social Care Is A Fine And Progressive Policy – But Who Is Going To Pay For It? | The King's Fund www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

Interesting to see in print the government's three 'core objectives' for adult #socialcare. They are sensible and coherent, even if they do skip over the key issue of eligibility. A surprise, though, to see them at all after a year when social care strategy was largely avoided.

Central government has focused too much on monitoring relatively small grants and too little on working out what impact our overall spend on adult #socialcare has on the lives of people. That’s one key finding of MPs in a new report today. committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Despite the dramatic headline, it seems that Casey has simply decided to meet the parties separately at first and bring them together later. It should be quite hard to work up to a ‘fury’ about that. #socialcare www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

If you want to know how today's spending review affects #socialcare, you are going to have to wait. There is no clear sum to fund a fair pay agreement and promises of 'over £4bn' for social care in 2028/29 are unclear. Puzzled, frustrated thread > news.sky.com/story/spendi...

NEW COUNTRY PROFILE: #England 🌍 In this system profile, @blimeysimon.bsky.social (@thekingsfund.bsky.social) and @natashacurry.bsky.social (@nuffieldtrust.org.uk) unpack the country's long-term care system. 🔍 Read now: goltc.org/system-profi...

This is the sort of news story care homes need. While it is of course nice to read about exotic animal visits (and there are lots of those stories in local newspapers), this is the one that makes people reassess their image of residential care. #socialcare www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-e...

Fed up with headlines claiming #socialcare is responsible for specific - and usually high - numbers of delayed discharge? After crunching the data we can say that… we just don’t know the true figure, because we stopped asking. Time to start again, though. www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

In your lifetime, you are more likely than not to develop #dementia or care for someone with it, a new @CareQualityComm report reminds us. That’s a strong, self-interest argument for a fairer, better funded #socialcare system, isn’t it? www.cqc.org.uk/publications...

Interesting @thefabians report which - for me - begs questions about the extent to which pay should be the immediate #socialcare priority. Crudely, should you ‘blow the budget’ on it or accept more limited change and investment in other areas? Thread🔽 fabians.org.uk/publication/...

“For a moment I understand why, despite everything, so many here seem to love their job.” Sympathetic portrait of working in #socialcare www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcar...

Valuable new @HealthFdn report on the potential cost of improved #socialcare. It considers three ‘levels’ of improvement and finds cost rises of between £3.4bn and £8.7bn in 2028/29 (all figures are real terms). Quick summary and some thoughts below 🔽 www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...

Care providers may struggle to win over the public on new immigration rules, suggests this large @YouGov poll. Nearly half (47%) support the govt reducing the no. of people migrating to work in #socialcare while a third (33%) oppose it. Big differences by politics/age though… 🔽

The issue here is not so much the principle as the timing. It’s right we should end reliance on overseas #socialcare workers and improving pay, which the govt plans to do, should help achieve that. But that potential pay increase is a long way off… www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The new @CommonsHealth report is a robust critique of the ‘do nothing/delay’ approach to #socialcare reform. It finds too little data to answer its own exam question - what is the cost of doing nothing - but points to some ways forward. V short thread 🔽 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The terms of reference for the Casey #socialcare commission are published today (though staff have been working for a while). There are concerns, particularly timing, but they should offer the scope Baroness Casey needs to do a thorough job. Thread below ⬇️ www.gov.uk/government/p...

Despite being 40% of a typical council's spending, adult #socialcare often seems missing in local election debate. So credit to @Kent_Online for asking each party what they'd do about it locally - the results are fascinating (summary in the thread below). www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/pa...

HAPPENING TOMORROW! 📣 Join @adelinacohe.bsky.social, @blimeysimon.bsky.social, Janine Dizon, Nicky Baker, and Sarah Gilbert for this exciting session on care #Workforce retention. 💼 REGISTER NOW to join at 9am BST: lse.zoom.us/meeting/regi... #CareWorkforce #WorkforceRetention #Webinar

Terms like ‘my love’ serve a valuable purpose in communication, says this new research in care homes. #socialcare theconversation.com/dementia-car...

Interesting from @HSJnews (£): hospitals 'increasingly using' fast track CHC to speed up discharges while awaiting #socialcare packages. Yet fast track is typically for end of life care and so may well be the wrong option for many people. www.hsj.co.uk/integrated-c...

"Failing to recognize that a person may consider some states of impairment worse than death is not resident centered or evidence-based". This is thought-provoking research for care homes. #socialcare jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

"If you do work in the care system - please know you are massively appreciated and the role you play in the lives of families is huge." #socialcare www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrit...

There are some positives in the new @DHSCgovuk survey on the #socialcare workforce, conducted in autumn 2024. While 71% of providers found recruitment a challenge, most thought it hadn’t deteriorated and 1 in 5 thought it had improved, as had retention and morale.

Went to the Freud Museum yesterday and discovered that the post box outside the house has been covered with visitor stickers, presumably through the process of transference.

This raises the familiar question of whether we need more care coordinators to help people navigate a complex health and #socialcare system. Alternatively, maybe we need a simpler health and #socialcare system. (Probably we need both.) www.hssib.org.uk/patient-safe...

The over-enthusiasm of this headline (the story is about nothing more dramatic than a new qualification for care workers) came on the same day as a report by @TunstallHealth said preventative technology is hamstrung by failure to integrate health and #socialcare budgets. 1/4

A pity there’s nothing about #socialcare in this interesting piece about ‘door-to-door’ NHS services. Crucially, how can a free, universal service work effectively when home care is means-tested and rationed? Now, if you had Scotland’s free personal care system… www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/6ab8f2a...

Macro-level news might be terrible but there’s the occasional heartening story lower down the page www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Another webinar to get excited about! 🎉 Care #WorkforceRetention: what factors are critical + how they change w/ age? 💼 Join us on Wed 30 April w/ @blimeysimon.bsky.social (@thekingsfund.bsky.social), Janine Dizon, Nicky Baker (ARIIA) + Sarah Gilbert (Skills4Care):👉 lse.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Public satisfaction with adult #socialcare remains at an all-time low, with just 13% of people saying they are very or quite satisfied, according to the new British Social Attitudes survey. But we’re still at least 2.5 years away from promise of reform. Short thread ⬇️

Tomorrow, 780,000 #socialcare staff will get a pay rise to bring them up to the new level of the minimum wage. That’s great news for them but also a marker of how poorly paid they were before. And it masks other pay-related issues showing the weakness of the sector. Thread ⬇️

'We're not going to be able to make the NHS hum beautifully unless we sort out the #socialcare system'. There's a big focus on care in this excellent @AlisonHoltBBC #bbcpanorama special airing tonight, including an interview with @wesstreeting 1/3 www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

“This government has certainly started something. But I don’t know how this is all meant to end. And more worryingly, I’m not sure who does.” Siva Anandaciva on the abolition of NHS England. www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

Health and #socialcare often seem like they are going in different directions: here we have @NHSEngland functions being brought in-house to @DHSCgovuk at the same time as #socialcare policy is being outsourced to an independent commission. www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cx...

"The most important question is how will the abolition of NHS England make it easier for people to get a GP appointment, shorten waits for planned care and improve people’s health?" The King's Fund response to today's announcement www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

It’s a strange old world when this is how we fund #socialcare www.thetimes.com/article/7a31...

I can still vividly remember having a session on toothbrushing at primary school in the 1960s. What most stuck in my mind was advice that, if you don’t have toothpaste you can use salt or - cue howls of disgust from class - soap. And on occasions I have. www.thesun.co.uk/health/33727...

Loading unfunded costs on care providers ultimately leads to a ‘doom loop’ in which fewer people receive #socialcare support. That’s the key lesson in this year’s Social Care 360 report. Here’s a short thread on the key findings ⬇️ www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

For #socialcare people wanting to understand what’s going on at the top levels of the NHS, this is a must read www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-...

Which #socialcare staff have the highest wellbeing at work? According to this newly released @DHSCgovuk survey, it’s personal assistants. Care workers and - perhaps more surprisingly - social workers/nursing associates are at the bottom. Lots more in the report : thread here ⬇️

It was always going to be a tough ask to get cross party support for #socialcare reform but this difficulty, according to ⁦‪@BBCNews‬⁩, is administrative rather than ideological. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Here’s the classic error of assuming that what applies to the NHS must also apply to #socialcare. Yet you can’t simply apply the planned NHS ‘shifts’ described here - hospital to community, sickness to prevention and analogue to digital - to social care. 1/5 www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

Whether or not you’re religious, this is good on community action in #socialcare. It draws on @annadixonmp.bsky.social #reimaginingcare report, which made a critical point about the need to agree the roles of individuals, families, communities and govt in care. www.thetimes.com/article/b56f...

Big contrast here with drugs treatments for #dementia - this is a personalised behavioural programme, delivered by non-clinicians e.g. carers or #socialcare staff. The cost saving claims need scrutiny but are a welcome attempt to quantify value. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

We know that council tax is a bad way of funding adult #socialcare because it raises less money in areas with highest demand for publicly-funded care. But here’s another reason from @resfoundation - council tax puts more of a burden on low income families than wealthier ones. 1/3

This seems to me a helpful way of considering the value of disease-modifying drugs for #dementia - to what extent do they reduce loss of independence? It suggests a delay in lost independence of between 10 and 13 months. #socialcare alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

This @TheIFS analysis of the 2025/26 local government finance settlement calculates it’s a 6.4% real terms increase. While substantial, it will still be a stretch to fund extra #socialcare costs, driven especially by the NICs increases for care providers. ifs.org.uk/articles/ifs...

I saw this and just had to look up the numbers: councils in fact spend 34 times as much on adult #socialcare as they do on streetlighting. Yet streetlighting is - literally - a more visible service so you can understand its equivalence in the headline. inews.co.uk/news/politic...