The NHS will listen, social services departments will listen, and politicians, we are told, must also listen.
Specifications, legislation, inspections, accredited bodies, and different ways of training schemes by the score are all involved in re-designing the situation around the fact that an increasing and ageing population will require increasing amounts of care.
The question, around which hundreds of thousands of hours are spent at an inestimable cost, is in reality ‘When we need to be cared for, how do we wish that care to be provided?’
Whether in hospital, at home or in a care home setting, the answers are simple. Ask any 100 people in any street in any town or city and the answers can be found and it will be straightforward and honest.
The response will be that when needing care for either ourselves or a family member, we want the care to be reliable, provided by caring people, care which is practical, appropriate and delivered with empathy and with a friendly disposition. Kindness and commonsense are high on the agenda.
Over the last decade the safety aspect of care provision across all sectors has been raised to a higher level. Flexible, innovative services are available and appropriate training is easily accessible. The building blocks for a reputable care system are already there so why the continuing questions and why is what people want, not nationally in place?
Another simple answer – is that the true fact of how care is going to be paid for is continually fudged. There is no magic pot of money going to arise from the Government, and what we need is a widespread campaign explaining in simple terms who can receive free or part-paid care and those who cannot.
The information is out there, but as a care provider of 30 years with ongoing contact with older people and their families, the financial aspects of care are largely unknown. Many, older people believe that the council home help system or something similar is still in place for all.
When the facts of who will have to pay for care are known, then people will take a pragmatic approach to paying for their care provision, because it will be the only choice.
The benefits will be that customer choice will increase competition between providers, further innovative services will develop, new financial products will be designed and the care industry will gain in strength and responsibility and the only target audience, people who require care will be the beneficiaries.
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