Care news

• Swindon service will see a team of dedicated specialist dementia nurses working across health services

  11-02-2019 09:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has introduced two new Admiral Nursing posts to provide specialist support to people with dementia and their carers and families. The nurses will provide one-to-one support, practical advice and expert guidance that helps people face dementia with more confidence and less fear. Charlie Duhig and Tim Allen, the specialist […]
  
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• Fostering is getting a shot of much-needed millennial energy – just ask Kiri Pritchard-McLean | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

  29-04-2024 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  With Britain crying out for foster carers, my schoolfriend’s comedy show sheds light on what it’s like for those in their 30s What do you do if you always imagined a house full of children, but don’t want to be a biological parent? This was the dilemma facing one of my schoolfriends, the standup comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean, who lives on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) with her partner. Like many people in their 30s, they were surrounded by friends embroiled in the maelstrom of bab
  
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• From potholes to planning: the issues at stake in England’s 2 May local elections

  28-04-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  While some voters may want to send a message to Westminster, more local concerns will have an influenceThis week’s local elections have been widely described as one of the toughest tests of Rishi Sunak’s 18-month premiership, with Westminster-watchers considering the results as portents of his fate in the coming national poll – considered to be coming this autumn.But while some voters in England may use their vote to bloody his nose this Thursday, a host of more local issues ar
  
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• From potholes to planning: key issues in England’s 2 May local elections

  28-04-2024 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  While some voters may want to send a message to Westminster, more local concerns will have an influenceThis week’s local elections have been widely described as one of the toughest tests of Rishi Sunak’s 18-month premiership, with Westminster-watchers considering the results as portents of his fate in the coming national poll – considered to be coming this autumn.But while some voters in England may use their vote to bloody his nose this Thursday, a host of more local issues ar
  
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• Vulnerable teenagers ‘dumped and abandoned’ in hotels by councils in England

  28-04-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Campaigners say cash-strapped local authorities are placing young people in budget accommodation, making them targets for grooming by criminal gangsVulnerable teenagers in care are being placed in hotels by cash-strapped councils, with experts warning they are being “served up” to criminal gangs.Children aged 16 to 17 are entering care in greater numbers than any other age group, often with complex needs, and experts say many councils in England now have nowhere to put them. They are
  
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• Work and pensions committee chair tells ministers to fix carer’s allowance issues

  27-04-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Stephen Timms says DWP letting unpaid carers incur ‘enormous accidental overpayments’Ministers have been told to “immediately” fix the issues causing tens of thousands of unpaid carers to incur “enormous accidental overpayments” amid growing anger over the carer’s allowance scandal.Stephen Timms, the chair of an influential parliamentary committee, said he was “very troubled” that scores of carers were being forced into financial distress as
  
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• Loїs Williams obituary

  26-04-2024 20:04 via theguardian.com
  
  My mother, Loїs Williams, who has died aged 98, was a social work team leader, an actor, a founder member of the National Childbirth Trust, and a lifelong campaigner for human rights, justice, peace and equality.Her acting career began with the Entertainments National Service Association in 1945, followed by many repertory theatre tours and seasons at the Shakespeare Memorial theatre in Stratford alongside Paul Scofield and Joss Ackland. These provided rich material for her creative writin
  
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• Sunak under pressure to grant amnesty to unpaid carers fined for rule breaches

  26-04-2024 12:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Concern grows over legality of approach as figures show more than 150,000 carers facing huge penaltiesA hero – then sacked: the carer’s allowance whistleblowerMore than 150,000 unpaid carers are facing huge fines for minor rule breaches, figures show, as MPs, charities and campaigners demand an immediate amnesty.Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, joined calls to write off the vast debts incurred by tens of thousands of people who care for sick, disabled and elderly relatives after experts
  
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• UK policy denying visas to children of care workers faces legal challenge

  26-04-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Action by organisation supporting migrants argues new rules are discriminatoryAn organisation that supports migrant workers has launched a legal challenge against the government’s new policy to bar care workers from bringing children and partners to the UK, warning that it is “tearing families apart”.According to Migrants at Work, care workers have to choose between family life with their children and partners or getting a job as a health or social carer in the UK &n
  
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• Hailed as a hero and then sacked: the carer’s allowance whistleblower

  25-04-2024 20:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Enrico La Rocca helped expose profound failures but less than a year later was dismissed by the DWP – and then later rehiredSunak under pressure to grant carers amnestyAlmost exactly five years ago, Enrico La Rocca was hailed by MPs as a hero, a whistleblower whose tenacity had helped expose profound failures at the heart of the government’s vast benefits agency, resulting in tens of thousands of vulnerable unpaid carers being unfairly fined and prosecuted.Without La Rocca – wh
  
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• Ex-Post Office executive says she does not recall email telling her Horizon terminals could be remotely accessed – as it happened

  25-04-2024 17:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Angela van den Bogerd says she forgot about email in 2010 saying cash balances in post office operators’ accounts could be remotely accessed. This live blog is closedHumza Yousaf, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, is holding a press conference now.He says he has been in the post for little more than a year.We are investing record [sums in the NHS], ensuring it can employ record numbers of staff delivering the best performing A&E units in UK. We are, of course, the only part o
  
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• Ex-Post Office executive says she does not recall email telling her Horizon terminals could be remotely accessed – UK politics live

  25-04-2024 16:23 via theguardian.com
  
  Angela van den Bogerd says she forgot about email in 2010 saying cash balances in post office operators’ accounts could be remotely accessedHumza Yousaf, the SNP leader and Scottish first minister, is holding a press conference now.He says he has been in the post for little more than a year.We are investing record [sums in the NHS], ensuring it can employ record numbers of staff delivering the best performing A&E units in UK. We are, of course, the only part of the UK to avoid strike a
  
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• Children in care – there’s one in every classroom | Letter

  24-04-2024 19:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Children can enter and exit care repeatedly, making accurate data hard to obtain, writes Dr Louise Mc Grath-Lone The figures in your article (One in 52 Blackpool children in care as poverty soars in north of England, 17 April) used to illustrate the north-south divide in the proportion of children placed in care in England are counts of children who are currently in care at a single point in time.However, these data snapshots do not present the full picture, as they do not account for the comple
  
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• Ministers pledge to publish long-buried study into impact of fines on carers

  24-04-2024 17:56 via theguardian.com
  
  DWP carried out research in response to criticism five years ago but has consistently refused to publish itUK politics – latest updatesMinisters have pledged to publish a long-buried internal study into the emotional and financial impact of fines and prosecutions incurred by tens of thousands of unpaid carers for falling foul of strict carer’s allowance earnings rules.The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) agreed to carry out the research at the insistence of MPs five years ago a
  
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• UK government dementia adviser resigns over prosecutions of unpaid carers

  23-04-2024 12:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Johnny Timpson says he wants to ‘take a stand’ after revelations thousands of carers are being forced to pay huge finesOne of Rishi Sunak’s dementia advisers has resigned over the government’s approach towards unpaid carers, describing the prosecutions of vulnerable people as “beyond the pale”.Johnny Timpson, who advised No 10 on its dementia strategy, said he wanted to “take a stand” after the Guardian revealed that tens of thousands of unpaid car
  
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• UK government dementia adviser resigns over prosecutions of carers

  23-04-2024 12:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Johnny Timpson says he wants to ‘take a stand’ after revelations thousands of unpaid carers are being forced to pay huge finesOne of Rishi Sunak’s dementia advisers has resigned over the government’s approach towards unpaid carers, describing the prosecutions of vulnerable people as “beyond the pale”.Johnny Timpson, who advised No 10 on its dementia strategy, said he wanted to “take a stand” after the Guardian revealed that tens of thousands of unp
  
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• Ignorance still stalks the land

  21-04-2024 19:25 via theguardian.com
  
  Beveridge’s giants | Carers | Cash-strapped Tories | Early Christmas | Bird’s birthdayBeth Riding writes of the “five giants” William Beveridge wanted to overcome in 1942 still stalking the land (I’m 17 and haven’t seen a dentist for four years. This is life in England’s NHS dental deserts, 17 April). Agenda Publications noted this and asked five writers to discuss how far the giants had been overcome, in five books published in 2022: Disease on health,
  
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• Lemn Sissay: ‘brilliant’ plans to improve child social care ignored by ministers

  19-04-2024 14:34 via theguardian.com
  
  Poet says government has not acted on 2022 MacAlister review because reforming system is not a vote winnerUK politics – latest updatesThe poet and broadcaster Lemn Sissay has accused ministers of ignoring “brilliant” recommendations to improve the “dysfunctional” children’s social care system in England because they are not vote winners.Sissay, whose bestselling memoir My Name Is Why was a reflection on his own childhood in care, said the government had &ldquo
  
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• Of course a society that demonises poverty will try to prosecute vulnerable, unpaid carers | Zoe Williams

  19-04-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The scandal, revealed by the Guardian, didn’t occur in a vacuum. The right’s casting of the poor as parasitic benefits cheats underpins it allThe unpaid carer’s allowance in this country is £81.90 a week. It’s hard to see what serious thought went into arriving at that figure – any calculation of how much it costs to live on, for instance, or how much an unpaid carer is saving the government. Being without discernible curiosity about the lives of unpaid carers
  
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• ‘Humiliated’: carer made to pay back £3.8k after mistake declaring income

  19-04-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Davina Ware applied for benefits to help look after husband Mike, 72, who has lived with Parkinson’s for 20 yearsThe pain cuts through Davina Ware’s voice as she describes her experience of carer’s allowance, the meagre weekly benefit given to those heralded by the government as Britain’s “unsung heroes”.She feels “humiliated,” “devastated,” and “treated like a conniving thief” by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) s
  
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• Sure Start could have changed everything for my family. Labour must be brave – and revitalise it | Terri White

  18-04-2024 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  A new report shows how transformational the initiative was. But Keir Starmer’s early-years plans lack the same visionSure Start did change the lives of children, a new report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) told us last week. It not only improved educational outcomes for children, particularly kids from deprived areas, but also reduced later need for education, health and care plans for those with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), and paid for itself. The confirm
  
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• DWP warns carers they could face greater penalties if they appeal against fines

  17-04-2024 19:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of ‘threatening and cruel’ tactics over repayment ordersWoman with dementia, 92, told to repay £7,000 in disability allowanceGovernment officials have been accused of using “threatening and cruel” tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against “vindictive” benefit fines.This month a Guardian investigation revealed that thousands of peopl
  
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• Unpaid carers lose out in benefits gap | Brief letters

  17-04-2024 19:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Carer’s allowance eligibility | Liz Truss’s bestseller | Save the election date | Earthworms rule | Reservoir picsRe Jan Pahl’s letter (12 April) illustrating the very low value that carer’s allowance (CA) places on unpaid carers’ contributions to the care of their families, the gap between entitlement to and eligibility for CA is further proof of this. In 2022-23, 1.3 million people were deemed to be entitled to claim CA, but nearly 400,000 were ineligible bec
  
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• DWP warns carers they could face greater penalties if they appeal fines

  17-04-2024 19:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of ‘threatening and cruel’ tactics over repayment orders Government officials have been accused of using “threatening and cruel” tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against “vindictive” benefit fines.This month a Guardian investigation revealed that thousands of people who look after disabled, frail or ill relatives have been forced to pay
  
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• Man with Down’s syndrome died from choking at care home, inquest hears

  17-04-2024 16:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Marcus Hanlin swallowed conkers hidden in rice after being left unsupervised in Bristol homeA man with Down’s syndrome, severe learning disabilities and poor eyesight, who died after swallowing conkers hidden in rice as part of a sensory activity at a nursing home, had been left unsupervised though staff knew he was fascinated by food, an inquest has heard.Marcus Hanlin, 57, was on a regime at Cheddar Grove nursing home in Bristol that included him only eating pureed meals and being kept a
  
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• Man died after swallowing conkers at care home, inquest hears

  17-04-2024 16:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Marcus Hanlin, who had Down’s syndrome and was on regime of pureed meals, choked after being left unsupervised, inquest toldA man with Down’s syndrome, severe learning disabilities and poor eyesight, who died after swallowing conkers hidden in rice as part of a sensory activity at a nursing home, had been left unsupervised though staff knew he was fascinated by food, an inquest has heard.Marcus Hanlin, 57, was on a regime at Cheddar Grove nursing home in Bristol that included him onl
  
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• One in 52 Blackpool children in care as poverty soars in north of England

  17-04-2024 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  £25bn of public money would have been saved between 2019 and 2023 if north had same care entry rates as south, report saysOne in every 52 children in Blackpool are in care compared with one in 140 across England, leading to calls for more to be done to urgently tackle the widening north-south divide, brought on by “decades of underinvestment”.Nine in every thousand children are in care in the north, compared with six in the rest of England, according to a report by Health Equit
  
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• Labour plans review of carer’s allowance after thousands forced to repay

  16-04-2024 13:54 via theguardian.com
  
  Alison McGovern says UK would ‘grind to a halt’ without unpaid carers and confirms party will review system if it wins powerLabour will review the system of carer’s allowance if it wins the general election, the party has confirmed, after the Guardian revealed that scores of unpaid carers were being forced to pay back thousands of pounds for minor breaches of benefit rules.Thousands of carers have run up huge debts, been given criminal records and been forced to sell their home
  
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• Eileen Jarvis obituary

  14-04-2024 16:56 via theguardian.com
  
  My mum, Eileen Jarvis, who has died aged 92, devoted her life to fighting for the rights of women and children, first with the women’s liberation movement and as a volunteer for Women’s Aid reguges, and then as a social worker in three London boroughs.Her passion for social work stemmed from the poverty she had witnessed growing up in north Wales, as well as the tragic high-profile case of Maria Colwell, a seven-year-old killed by her stepfather in 1973. While raising her own daughte
  
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