The Guardian: Now disabled people face a kind of internment. Just ask Edith

Andy

Andy

Retired committee member
Proof that the Guardian cares, as long as you have the acceptable (to them) illnesses.
In 24 hours’ time, Edith will no longer be able to get out of bed. The 30-year-old has multiple sclerosis, and relies on council-funded care assistants to help her live in her two-bed adapted flat in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

For 18 months, she has managed with only a couple of visits a day: one at 7am, to enable her to get up for work as a chartered accountant, and another at 8.30pm to help her get out of her wheelchair and back into bed. After years of saving hard for her first home and moving out of her parents’, it was meant to be the start of Edith’s life. But in February her care agency struck a blow: owing to staff shortages in her area, they would be ceasing their contract, and giving social services 90 days’ notice. Three months later, with barely a day until her carers leave, the council hasn’t found her a replacement.

Edith is terrified. “Carers helping me out of bed every morning are the fundamental life support which everything else in my life depends on,” she says. “And now it feels like the rug is being pulled out from beneath me.”
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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/10/disabled-people-internment-care
 
Heartbreaking story. And all because the care agencies can't find enough workers.

Simple solution - pay them a decent wage and give them proper job security. But that requires the government to fund social care properly.

I use care workers from a care agency and the turnover in staff is huge - I pay a lot more per half hour visit than the care worker gets - the rest presumably goes in office and office staff costs, recruitment and training costs (they get 2 days training) and profits for the private company that runs it.

It's a hugely important and responsible job. My carer yesterday says some of her clients are in their nineties and have been sent home from hospital only 48 hours after surgery such as hip replacements.
 
Trish said:
Heartbreaking story. And all because the care agencies can't find enough workers.

Simple solution - pay them a decent wage and give them proper job security. But that requires the government to fund social care properly.

I use care workers from a care agency and the turnover in staff is huge - I pay a lot more per half hour visit than the care worker gets - the rest presumably goes in office and office staff costs, recruitment and training costs (they get 2 days training) and profits for the private company that runs it.

It's a hugely important and responsible job. My carer yesterday says some of her clients are in their nineties and have been sent home from hospital only 48 hours after surgery such as hip replacements.
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Don't disagree with anything that you say, social care should in no way be subject to the whims of the market and the desire for a company to make "adequate" profits.
 
Snowdrop said:
Immediately my mind went to #SomethingToHide
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Yup. We strongly suspect that they are hiding information because of the number of people who died within 6 months of being declared 'fit to work'.

the statistics, released on the order of the Government’s transparency watchdog, show that between December 2011 and February 2014, 2,380 people died after their Work Capability Assessment told them they should start looking for work.
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(The request was for the numbers who died within 6 weeks of the Assessment.)

Source
 
I was wondering if Edith noted in the following article was:

(a) allowed to supplement the cost for her care assistants from her own wages;
(b) the company she works for was allowed to supplement the cost for her care assistants as an employee benefit;
(c) her parents were allowed to supplement the cost for their daughter's care assistants;
(d) was allowed to run her own accounting firm from a "care home" who would have care assistants as part of their full-time staff;
(e) if there was a company which is part of Purple Space Ltd. https://www.purplespace.org
that was looking for a chartered accountant that would be prepared to supplement the cost for her care assistants;
(f) if Disability Rights UK https://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/ knew of a company or non-profit organization that was looking for a chartered accountant that would be prepared to supplement the cost for her care assistants;
(g) if EvenBreak http://www.evenbreak.co.uk/ knew of a company that was looking for a chartered accountant that would be prepared to supplement the cost for her care assistants;
(h) if My Plus Student's club https://myplusstudentsclub.com/ knew of a company that was looking for a chartered accountant that would be prepared to supplement the cost of her care assistants;
(i) if Frances Ryan https://twitter.com/drfrancesryan?lang=en knew of a company or organization that would be prepared to supplement the cost of her care assistants;
(j) if Business Disability International https://www.businessdisabilityinternational.org/ knew of a company or organization that would be prepared to supplement the cost of her care assistants;
(k) if Disabled Entrepreneurs UK http://www.disabledentrepreneurs.co.uk/ knew of a company or organization that would be prepared to supplement the cost of her care assistants;
(l) if ICAEW
https://events.icaew.com/pd/10075/i...roPanel&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=ICAEW
knew of a company or organization that would be prepared to supplement the cost of her care assistants
(m) if the members of Science for Me knew of a company or organization that would be prepared to supplement the cost of her care assistants; and
(n) if The Association of Disabled Professionals https://www.adp.org.uk/ knew of a company or organization that would be prepared to supplement the cost of her care assistants?


Now disabled people face a kind of internment. Just ask Edith

(2) For your information and consideration.
Sincerely,
Connector
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Welcome to the forum Connector.

Connector said:
I was wondering if Edith noted in the following article was:
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Well, I think the vast majority of those questions would have to be asked of Edith herself, I don't really see how we would be able to answer them definitively. However I think most of your questions can be summed up as "could Edith, or someone on her behalf, employ more care staff?", which I would imagine potentially could happen but naturally depends if she was to have enough disposable income - anybody employing her is likely, I would have thought, to simply deduct anything they pay out in employing care staff from her salary, so whether Edith or her employer pays, the net result is the same.
 
Hi, @Connector.

Thank you for all that detailed information - it may be of use to some of our members.

I think in the case described in the article the problem was not funding, but the availability of carers - there is a shortage of people willing to work for care agencies in some parts of the UK.

If you think this information might be of use to the individual described in the article you could contact the newspaper that carried the article and ask them to pass on the information to her.
 
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