An anonymous article by a care team worker on the fourth year of redundancies and the effects on team morale. The pertinent question is raised of why after four years of drip-fed redundancies, there has been no change to management staffing levels? Surely there are far fewer people to manage now.

Management decision making (or the lack of it) is also addressed, raising further questions.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/social-life-blog/2015/jan/21/redundancies-social-care-job-cuts

An uplifting account written by family support worker Bobby Owen, who offers emotional support and practical advice about sibling care, employment and housing when a child is in hospital.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jan/16/social-work-charities-ill-children

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Age UK has spoken out on the dire effects of social care cuts. Between 2010-11 and 2013-14:

- People getting help at home for tasks like washing and dressing, fell by a third to just over 370,000

- Day care places have dropped by two thirds to just under 60,000

- Meals on wheels recipients fell to 29,500, a decline of 64%

The charity have identified the austerity cuts as one of the main causes behind the growing pressures on A&E units. Director Caroline Abrahams added,

"Hundreds of thousands of older people who need social care are being left high and dry. The lucky ones have sufficient funds to buy in some support, or can rely on the goodwill of family, neighbours and friends. But there are many who are being left to struggle on entirely alone."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30902555

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Our e-learning courses can be issued by GPs to patients by e-learning prescription. To find out more, please call 0161 928 9987 and visit our online course library: http://goo.gl/wVmnWq

An examination of the state of the social care profession. With an anticipated extra million social care jobs by 2025, action needs to be taken if these positions are to be filled. How this is to be funded is considered in some depth here by Laura Gardiner. The challenges she identifies that need to be faced include:

- Eradicating zero hours contracts

- Ensuring that at least the minimum wage is met, by paying care workers for time spent travelling

- The provision of adequate training in, for example, caring for those with dementia.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jan/20/care-workers-better-pay-conditions

According to research carried out at Edinburgh University, geographical location can have a bearing on one's susceptibility to dementia. Studies in Scotland and Sweden showed that the further north people live, the less sunlight they absorb. This leads to a lower absorption of Vitamin D, linked to a greater risk of developing the condition.

Dr Tom Russ believes this knowledge could have a profound effect on tackling dementia. He commented, "If this geographical variation in dementia risk is the result of one or more environmental risk factors, and if these could be improved in the whole population, our findings suggest that it might be possible to halve dementia rates."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-30879828

If you’re interested in receiving online training about caring for people with dementia, you can find out about our specialist e-learning course by clicking here: http://www.embrace-learning.co.uk/Website/Pages/Courses/Course_Information.php?course_id=90

Sue Brown, head of public policy at deafblind charity Sense, offers tips to for social workers on implementing the Care Act for deafblind people. The categories she includes are first contact, assessment, eligibility, and prevention duties.

There’s also a useful link to Sense's free guide to helping local authorities implement the Act.

http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2015/01/08/tips-social-workers-implementing-care-act-deafblind-people/

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Are you ready for the Care Certificate?

 The National Care Forum has announced that Skills for Care, together with Aged Care Channel (ACC) TV are hosting a free live TV Event on Thursday 12 February 2015 at 10:45am and 2pm. You will be able to watch the broadcast, and participate, on any device with an Internet connection.

http://www.nationalcareforum.org.uk/viewNews.asp?news_ID=2401&sector_id=3

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How will the #CareAct affect you and your family? Surrey County Council have produced this useful and informative video as an introductory guide. It includes information specific to Surrey, but a lot of it is relevant to everyone in the UK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC8xIkXUDkk

Are you ready for the new Care Act?

Carers UK and Embrace-learning have joined forces to develop this key learning resource. With three easy-to-follow study units you can learn about the changes to practice that will happen when the new Act comes into force in April 2015.

http://www.embrace-learning.com/the_care_act_2014_e-learning.php

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has upheld its recommendation not to routinely screen people aged 65 and over for dementia. Despite the fact that more than half of the estimated 850,000 people with dementia in the UK currently have a diagnosis, the society concurs with this view, due to

- a lack of accurate tests for the condition

- the non-availability of effective treatments

However, they do strongly advise that GPs routinely ask those at a higher risk of dementia about their memory.

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=2292

If you’re interested in receiving online training about caring for people with dementia, you can find out about our specialist e-learning course by clicking here: http://www.embrace-learning.co.uk/Website/Pages/Courses/Course_Information.php?course_id=90

To recap on our earlier post, a team of UK scientists have discovered a 'cold-shock chemical' that can repair broken synapse connections. The chemical, called RBM3, becomes active in animals emerging from hibernation. 

This discovery opens a potential new approach to developing an effective treatment for dementia. The society's director of research and development, Dr Doug Brown commented:

"While we don't think body cooling is a feasible treatment for long-term, progressive conditions like Alzheimer's disease, this research opens up the possibility of finding drugs that can have the same effect. We are very much looking forward to seeing this research taken forward to the next stage."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30812438

James Gallagher, BBC Health Editor, reports on some fascinating research published in the journal Nature about what happens to the brain when mammals hibernate. According to scientists who carried out the experiments, almost a third of synapses – connections in the brain – are destroyed during hibernation to preserve vital resources over winter. In Spring, when the mammals start to revive, however, these connections ‘reform’ with no apparent loss of memory.

Dr Eric Karran, Director of Research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said the study was 'promising" and "highlights a natural process nerve cells use to protect themselves".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30812438

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A look at how Google Glass could help transform health, social care and social work. Benefits of the emergent technology include:

- Bridging language barriers using real time translation

- Comparing food labels with nutritional requirements/dietary restrictions

- Livestreaming to remotely access colleagues/family members/carers

- Information sharing amongst professionals

- Cost-cutting

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jan/13/five-ways-google-glass-can-transform-social-care

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A call to change our attitudes toward the elderly. Somehow elderly people have become sad expensive problems, rather than people with lives to lead. Social care for older people is no longer funded, leading to strain being put on hospital resources. 

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/09/bedblocking-social-care-policy-profits-ahead-of-people

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Our e-learning courses can be issued by GPs to patients by e-learning prescription. To find out more, please call 0161 928 9987 and visit our online course library: http://goo.gl/wVmnWq

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SCIE chief executive Tony Hunter shares his hopes for 2015. He would like people no longer to be the passive recipients of care, but to be enabled to contribute to community life, what he terms 'co-production'. The Care Act, he sees as an opportunity to embrace this ideal. The question is changing from "What's the matter with you?" to "What matters to you?"

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jan/08/service-users-care-act-co-production-tony-hunter

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Director of Think Local Act Personal, Isabelle Trowler, on her hopes for the transformation of social care in 2015. Stressing the need for action rather than words, she highlights three principal areas where change is necessary:

1) A shift in emphasis onto the promotion of individual wellbeing within inclusive communities

2) The nurturing of a strong Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) programme that can work effectively for those with the most complex needs

3) An effective partnership between health, care, housing and beyond.

Underpinning all this is a strong desire to see a new funding settlement for social care, to match increased funding for the NHS. In an election year we can expect plenty of positive posturing from our politicians, but which party would come closest to delivering her ideal? That is the question.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/dec/30/social-care-funding-money-wish?CMP=share_btn_tw

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An examination of why there has not been a greater uptake of personal budgets in mental health. Despite evidence that personal budgets provide improved mental health, it appears that there are systematic barriers preventing their more widespread use. These include:

- professionals who still perceive risk in allowing people with mental health problems controlling their own support

- a reluctance to shift from an emphasis on diagnoses and conditions

- a lack of NHS focus on personalisation, coupled with

- a growing trend among local authorities to distance themselves from mental health

It appears that without a concerted national focus within the social care sector itself, mental health provision in England will at best stagnate. What are your thoughts?

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jan/06/mental-health-personal-budgets-social-care

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All of us at Embrace-learning would like to wish you a happy New Year and we hope you have a very positive and uplifting 2015. Thank you for all your messages and contributions to our discussions and we look forward very much to hearing more from you!

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In 2014 the School for Social Care Research published "Care Home Managers: A scoping review of evidence". Authored by Katharine Orellana, the booklet attempts to provide for adults in England, an overview of evidence concerning the role and experience of the care home manager. Starting by addressing the question of who care managers are, attention then focuses on:

- their practice, experience and skills

- the supervision and support they receive from their superiors/home owners

- the challenges they face in practice

- gaps in the evidence base

Often alluded to as 'shadowy' figures, they have a defining impact on the culture of care.

http://www.sscr.nihr.ac.uk/PDF/ScopingReviews/SR8.pdf

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Peter Beresford's critique of the state of social care provision is essential reading. Frequently he makes reference to the ambiguity of political posturing in the face of an increasing state of emergency in the caring sector.

He calls for a radical policy review of personalisation and personal budgets; berates the abuse of 'eligibility criteria' as the smoke and mirrors of political expediency, which allows the likes of Paul Burstow to claim that there is "no funding gap", when estimates put it at £7billion; and describes, "... a fragmented social work education system ... what's most needed are skilled social workers spending more time with service users”.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jan/05/revive-social-care-peter-beresford

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BBC Health Correspondent, Nick Triggle, reports on what the NHS needs to address at the start of 2015. Figures, which will be released later this week, are expected to reveal that performance in Accident and Emergency units in England has dropped to its worst level in a decade.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-30633677

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