Comment How to escape the circle


CARE HOME


ENVIRONMENT www.thecarehomeenvironment.com Editor


Mary-Louise Clews marylouiseclews@stepcomms.com


Business Manager Mike Gammon mikegammon@stepcomms.com


Journal Administration Katy Cockle


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Publisher Geoff King


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Publishing Director Trevor Moon


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THE CARE HOME ENVIRONMENT is published monthly by Step Communications Ltd, Step House, North Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN2 3DR, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1892 779999


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Mary-Louise Clews, Editor marylouiseclews@stepcomms.com


As what has been an extraordinary summer draws to a close, adult social care finds itself at an unusual moment. After years of being treated as the political issue everyone agreed was important but few were willing to grasp, it spent the first weeks of the new government firmly in the spotlight. The prime minister’s early decision to


stand in a care home and declare that he would put “everything he has” into fixing adult social care with firm commitments on workforce reform, a National Care Service and building political consensus around lasting change have generated genuine optimism across the sector. Yet the events of recent weeks have also


served as a reminder that reform is not only about funding models, workforce structures or legislative change. It is also about visibility. The dramatic evacuation of residents from


the newly opened Barchester care home Iverley View (pictured, and coincidentally features in our new build section this month – see pgs 21-24) during the Stourbridge wildfires illustrated this perfectly. Thankfully, reports suggest the evacuation was carried out successfully, but the incident shone a spotlight on something providers know all too well. When extreme weather strikes, care homes are not spectators to national emergencies. They are on the frontline of them. As heatwaves, flooding and other climate-


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related events become more frequent, care providers are being asked to manage increasingly complex risks while continuing to support some of the most vulnerable people in society. The professionalism shown by care teams during incidents such as Stourbridge – and during the wider impact of relentless heat waves this summer - deserves the same recognition routinely afforded elsewhere across the health and emergency response systems. So, it was disappointing that the social care


workforce was once again left out of comments made by the new health and social care secretary Yvette Cooper thanking NHS staff for their efforts during the summer heat waves, despite carers working in the same conditions, facing many of the same challenges and supporting many of the same people. The government has repeatedly argued


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Prime Minister Andy Burnham pictured outside Iverley View Care Home during the nearby Stourbridge wildfires.


that lasting reform will require a shift in how society thinks about care, recognising that major transformation of the sector won’t succeed unless the public understands its value and supports the difficult decisions needed to sustain it. But changing public attitudes begins with


signals, not legislation. Signals that show whose contribution is acknowledged and who is included in the national conversation. As the prime minister prepares to host his


first party conference as leader, the challenge will be to show that social care’s recent prominence is not a summer headline but a lasting commitment. The sector has waited a long time to move from the political margins to the centre of the debate. Staying there will require more than bold announcements. It will require a consistent willingness to recognise care, involve care and speak about care as an equal partner in the future of public services. If that happens, the never ending circle


policy makers go round on social care reform may finally begin to widen into a new path.


THE


Credit: Stourbridge News.


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