Residential & Home Care Show


who will be paying for it. “Even today,” said Nadra, “I can go into meeting where there is a dispute and be told by the family member, ‘but it’s meant to be free’.” She continued: “We have people who


believe social care is free at the point of access just like the NHS and I think that’s really worrying because it only matters when it matters. You only engage in social care when something happens in your life and any one of us sitting in this room today could become recipients of social care at the drop of a hat.” Recruitment and retention also remain


a massive problem. As Nadra put it: “Why would you come and work in social care when you could become a nurse or a social worker? Nobody’s been able to say what the value of a social carer is.” The lack of a career pathway, in contrast to the many careers available in the NHS, is problematic. “How,” asked Nadra, “are we going to make this person stay in social care and rise to the top? What is the top? The person at the top is the person who owns the business.”


As it had been for the Access to care panel, visibility and an almost total lack of public engagement was a frustration. “Why isn’t there an outcry?” asked Nadra, “Why don’t we stand up and scream that this is not fair? Why aren’t we getting that attention?” She said it was time the sector stopped thinking of itself as something that was broken and needed fixing; that such thinking was unhelpful and at odds with the services it provided. “We’ve got to turn that rhetoric around,” Nadra concluded. What, then, of the lunch itself? In truth,


my expectations had not been high, and I half-expected to be served with a plate of


puréed, easy-to-swallow ‘care home’ food. I need not have worried. Instead, I was treated to roast beef with all the trimmings - including a crispy Yorkshire pudding - followed by a crème caramel. Both courses were absolutely delicious. Were I a care home resident (and likely paying for my own care, which does not come cheap), this is exactly the sort of thing I would want to be eating every day. As has often been the case in my tenure thus far as Editor of The Care Home Environment, my preconceptions of what to expect proved wide of the mark. During the lunch, I asked the apetito team whether the current cost of living crisis and the much-reported pressures on the availability of various foodstuffs were creating difficulties when it came to sourcing particular ingredients for their meals. To my surprise, their response was in the negative – while there were certain price


challenges across the board - the same as those affecting everybody - apetito remain very confident in the resilience of their supply chain. Great news, I’m sure, for the many care providers that rely on them.


Driven to do their best


I spent the rest of the afternoon dipping in and out of seminars and talks, listening to a range of views and concerns from across social care. What struck me - and this was also true of Facing the future and Future of care - is that the people who work in the sector and those who campaign on its behalf are genuinely driven to do their best to ensure that those who engage with social care - the clients, residents, and their families, too - receive the best possible care, and are able to look forward to the best possible outcomes. Everybody I spoke to at my first Residential & Home Care Show was friendly and enthusiastic about what they do and were clearly relishing the opportunity to meet people in the flesh after a prolonged break. For my part, the show seemed well


attended and certainly sounded busy. I left ExCel with my ears ringing, my feet sore, and with (very importantly) a full stomach, but also with a confidence that, while social care is facing a range of pressing and acute difficulties, there are a raft of digital solutions that may very well follow through on their promise to benefit care providers and their residents. More crucially, it’s clear that social care boasts an impressive roster of individuals determined to hold the government to account in ensuring that the sector sees the funding and reform it both needs and deserves.


16


n www.thecarehomeenvironment.com June 2022


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