Tag Archives: care

Mark Valladares

24 October 2024 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 24th October 2024 - 11:30 pm
  • NAO Report on SEN provision: “urgent reform” needed, say Lib Dems
  • Nearly 6,000 crimes went unsolved every day last year
  • Government have “missed an open goal” on new football regulator, say Lib Dems
  • Reeves announcement: Chancellor must prioritise investment in crumbling hospitals
  • Cole-Hamilton: Greens have wasted £30m on care centralisation
  • Welsh Liberal Democrats demand action on NHS waiting lists

NAO Report on SEN provision: “urgent reform” needed, say Lib Dems

A new National Audit Office report has revealed that the Special Educational Needs (SEN) system is “financially unsustainable”, with 43% of councils at risk of effectively declaring bankruptcy.

It also found that there has been “no consistent improvement in outcomes for children and young people with SEN” since 2019, with 50% of children waiting more than the statutory 20-week target for an Education, Health and Care plan.

Responding to the report, Munira Wilson MP, the Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education, Children and Families, said:

Every child should get the help they need at nursery, in school and throughout their lives, to achieve all they can. But far too many children are being left to struggle because the support they need simply isn’t there.

The last Conservative Government woefully underfunded both schools and local councils, forcing thousands of parents to battle against a system that just isn’t working. That is unacceptable. No child, or their family, should have to wait so long or fight so hard to have their needs met.

Now this crisis is pushing councils to the brink of bankruptcy. I hope the Government will urgently reform the whole system to save council budgets and make sure children and parents get the support they need, without having to wait for months or go to court.

Nearly 6,000 crimes went unsolved every day last year

The Liberal Democrats have slammed the previous Conservative government’s “legacy of failure” as new statistics reveal the extent of unsolved crime in the year ending June 2024.

The figures were revealed by the Home Office’s own statistics on crime outcomes, released earlier this morning.

2,156,075 crimes went unsolved across England and Wales in the year ending June 2024, equivalent to 5,907 crimes going unsolved every day. Ths accounted for 40% of all crimes recorded that year.

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The Voice

Chamberlain’s Carer’s Leave Bill closer to becoming law

By The Voice | Sat 4th February 2023 - 4:00 pm

On Thursday, a private member’s bill promoted by Wendy Chamberlain, MP for North East Fife passed its third reading without opposition and now goes to the Lords. As the Conservatives do not oppose the bill, it is set to become law.

Chamberlain said the new employment rights in the bill are vital at a time when the Government are trying to get people, especially the over-50s, back to work. The bill creates a new entitlement for employees to take up to a week of unpaid leave a year in order to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.

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The Voice

Ed Davey on kinship care and his experience

By The Voice | Thu 2nd February 2023 - 8:57 am

Ed Davey spoke to Jason Farrell, Sky News’ home editor about his own experience of kinship caring. Ed explained his grandparent’s involvement in his own upbringing and how his maternal grandfather and mother were critical to looking after him after the death of this father when he was just four. Ed spoke movingly, at times tearfully, about his mother’s illness and how that created strain between his mother and grandmother. When his mother died 11 years later, his grandparents looked after him full-time while living with the loss of their only child. Kinship care, where grandparents are supported and encouraged in looking after grandchildren alongside foster or adoptive parents, is the best form of care he says.

 

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The Voice

Paul McGarry talks of his “chaotic” youth in debate on support for care leavers #ldconf

By The Voice | Sat 18th September 2021 - 1:31 pm

Earlier today, Conference passed a motion calling for better support for care leavers up until the age of 25.

During the debate, Scottish Lib Dem Housing spokesperson Paul McGarry talked about why the measures outlined in the motion were so important and would have helped him. He describes the terrifying experience of being homeless at 16 after a “chaotic” childhood.

He has kindly sent us his speech so that readers can understand the reality our young people have to go through.

Conference I am one of a small group within our party with a lived experience and today I want to speak specifically about my experience, and how it relates to the importance of resolution 4.

Too many children are experiencing turmoil in their day-to-day existence, dealing with parents who have addictions, their parents broken relations, physical, emotional and sexual abuse within the home.

My own experience was a childhood that was disrupted and chaotic and a constant fear that we might be taken into care. We received support and my mum received support, we had neighbours and people in the community helping us, in fact my first contact with the Lib Dems was when we stayed with a Lib Dem MP and his wife, when my mum was particularly unwell.

Life was chaotic but I mostly was not permanently in the care system though my brother was.

This came to a head and at 16 I was homeless, homeless and terrified.

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The Voice

Lib Dems call for Care Leavers education support

By The Voice | Sat 18th September 2021 - 11:00 am

The Liberal Democrats have agreed upon a new deal for Care Leavers at their party conference today. The package calls for support measures for Care Leavers particularly in the area of education.

The party is calling for further provision to support carers right the way through their education, with support measures proposed from the early teens right the way to further education.

The motion calls for young people and Care Leavers to have specialised mentoring, extra exam support and tuition. The package also calls on the Government to increase the Care Leaver Bursary from £1,000 to £2,000.

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Jane Dodds

Ending profit making from the care of vulnerable children in Wales

By Jane Dodds | Fri 16th July 2021 - 9:50 am

Before my election to the Senedd I was a child protection social worker. I worked with some of the most vulnerable children and young people in society and those staff dedicated to giving them every chance to thrive.

That is why I jumped at the chance to table a debate on legislative proposal in the Senedd on Wednesday, just weeks into the first term. I used the opportunity to shine a light on the work that we must do here in Wales to create a genuine care system based on the needs, hopes, and aspirations of children and young people.

I used my voice in our national parliament, to speak up for the children, young people, and staff who are waiting for the Welsh Labour Government to act.

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Kirsten Johnson

Government under increasing pressure to fund social care

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 11th July 2019 - 8:30 am

This blog is a week late – but I’ve been busy! I wanted to highlight the Lords’ Economic Affairs Committee report published July 4th. This cross-party group of Peers calls for an immediate investment of £8 billion pounds into our care services “to restore social care to acceptable standards”.

North Devon, as many areas of the country, has an ageing population. Many move here to retire, and then as they enter their twilight years increasingly rely on stretched care services. I have been meeting with care providers and care users – there is a lot that needs improving in North Devon and it comes down to funding. £8 billion more for our care services nationally would make a real difference in North Devon.

In England, over a million vulnerable older people do not have proper care support. However, in Scotland, where health and social services are a devolved matter, care is free for the over 65s.

Many family and friends in England have caring responsibilities as their loved one does not meet the criteria for social care. This is wrong. The report highlights that most unpaid carers are women. 63% of women who care are aged between 50-64 and care for at least 50 hours a week. Our society is being propped up by the unpaid work of millions of carers.

I welcome another recommendation of the report, notably that a further £7 billion a year should be spent to extend free personal care to all by 2025. This would include help with cooking, washing and dressing. We need an integrated health and care system, with care paid for out of taxes. Any of us could need care at any time – this should not be a lottery where some get good care and others not.

Key findings are here, and include that the lack of funding means “local authorities are paying care providers a far lower rate for local authority-funded care recipients than self-funded care recipients, and those care providers with a high proportion of local authority-funded care recipients are struggling to survive.” North Devon in a nutshell.

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Kirsten Johnson

The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report

By Kirsten Johnson | Thu 10th May 2018 - 12:22 pm

The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review Annual Report was published recently by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership. In it are harrowing statistics of people with learning disabilities dying far too young.

The report highlights the extraordinarily high incidences of preventable death. The Connor Sparrowhawk case has brought this to public attention recently: a young man with learning difficulties left in a bath unattended, he drowned whilst having an epileptic fit.

Between July 2016 and November 2017, 1311 deaths were put forward for review, often by a Learning Disability Nurse. Of those, 27% …

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The Voice

Lamb and Williams warn on care cap delay

By The Voice | Sun 26th July 2015 - 3:25 pm

As Care Minister, Norman Lamb (and his Liberal Democrat predecessor) were pivotal in ensuring that the cap for care costs was introduced. The Conservatives have now delayed its implementation by 4 long years. Norman described this as an “outrageous betrayal of people at their most weak and most frail. He said:

This an extraordinary and devastating u-turn from the Tories and an outrageous betrayal of people at their most weak and most frail with conditions like dementia.

Crippling care costs need addressing urgently. In coalition we designed a solution that would help and was affordable. Local authorities have spent millions already preparing for the introduction of the cap, yet we now hear the Tories are turning their back on it. This delay is a total waste of public money.

The distress and heartbreak that people feel when a loved one is in care, is being exacerbated by the fear of how to pay for it. We must not allow this to continue.

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Mary Reid

LibLink: Norman Lamb on integrated funding for health and care

By Mary Reid | Mon 3rd November 2014 - 4:12 pm

Norman LambIn an interview with Public Finance Norman Lamb says that he has his sights on 2018, as the date by which all health and care spending will be pooled in England. He said:

I want the approach to evolve rather than having anything imposed. The only imposition is to say that we have got to get budgets pooled locally completely, and I’ve talked to a lot of people about this and I think we’ve come up with a neat solution to achieve the pooled budget without a national reorganisation, which nobody wants.

The Better Care Fund seems to me to be the sensible way of achieving that objective, to progressively increase the extent of the pooling, and as you do that I think you remove the perverse consequences of the gaming across the boundary between the two.

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb MP writes: Ending face down restraint

By Norman Lamb MP | Sun 6th April 2014 - 8:55 am

Department of health, mental health care reportI am sure that many of you will remember the stories about the Winterbourne View scandal a couple of years ago.  Vulnerable residents with autism and learning difficulties were subjected to shocking abuse from those who should have been protecting and caring for them.  The review that was carried out into the scandal highlighted the widespread and inappropriate use of physical restraint, including dangerous face-down restraint, at the hospital.

As a Liberal Democrat I am committed to tackling poor quality care, and ensuring that everyone in …

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes… A once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix our health and care system

By Norman Lamb MP | Mon 16th December 2013 - 12:58 pm

In 1997 Tony Blair told the Labour Party conference “I don’t want brought up in a country where the only way pensioners can get long-term care is by selling their home.” And yet speaking to the Health Select Committee in 2010, in Labour’s final months in office, Andy Burnham said, “every member of the Cabinet believed social care to be an area that had not been properly reformed and was one of great unfairness”. In thirteen years of talk, and promises, Labour did nothing to fix our dysfunctional, and profoundly unfair, system of funding social care.

In …

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Norman Lamb MP

Norman Lamb writes: The Liverpool Care Pathway and end of life care

By Norman Lamb MP | Tue 6th November 2012 - 1:06 pm

I imagine many people had not heard of the Liverpool Care Pathway before it hit the headlines a couple of weeks ago with allegations of patients denied drugs, liquid and sustenance and families experiencing real distress. Set up in the late 1990s, its intention was to help spread elements of the hospice model of care into other settings: hospitals, care homes and people’s own homes. We all want to know that our loved ones – no matter where they are – will receive dignified and appropriate care in the last hours and days of their life.

Used properly, the Pathway ensures that individuals receive whatever treatments are right for them in their final days. The Liverpool Care Pathway itself is very clear that patients should be involved in decisions about their care if possible, and that carers and families should always be included in the decision-making process.

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Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow writes: Have Your Say on Care and Support

By Paul Burstow | Tue 24th July 2012 - 4:53 pm

A fortnight ago I wrote about how the Care and Support White paper and draft Bill signalled the biggest overhaul of social care in over 60 years.

The media storm triggered by that announcement inevitably focused on a single issue – namely who pays for care.

And while of course that issue is very important (and is something I care deeply about), it doesn’t address the urgent problem of fixing our broken system of social care.

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