an article by Pamela Fisher (Leeds Beckett University, UK) and Lisa Buckner (University of Leeds, UK) published in International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy Volume 38 Issue 9/10 (2019)
Abstract
Purpose
Since the 2008 financial crisis, state retrenchment has added to the harshness of life for marginalised groups globally. This UK study suggests community activism may promote human capacity and resilience in innovative ways. The purpose of this paper is to address the relationship between non-normative understandings of time and resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
This research paper is based on qualitative study of the work of a third sector organisation based in an urban area in the UK which provides training in mediation skills for community mediators (CMs). These CMs (often former “gang members”) work with young people in order to prevent conflict within and between groups of white British, South Asian and Roma heritage.
Findings
CMs are reflexively developing temporalities which replace hegemonic linear time with a situationally “open time” praxis. The time “anomalies” which characterise the CMs’ engagement appear related to aesthetic rationality, a form of rationality which opens up new ways of thinking about resilience. Whether CMs’ understandings and enactments of resilience can point to broader changes of approach in the delivery of social care is considered.
Practical implications
This paper contributes to critical understandings of resilience that challenge traditional service delivery by pointing to an alternative approach that focusses on processes and relationships over pre-defined outcomes.
Social implications
Hegemonic understandings of time (as a linear process) can delegitimise potentially valuable understandings of resilience developed by members of marginalised communities.
Originality/value
This paper is original in developing a critical analysis of the relationship between resilience and time.
Showing posts with label social_care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social_care. Show all posts
Tuesday, 8 October 2019
Monday, 22 July 2019
Good Value for Money? Public Investment in ‘Replacement Care’ for Working Carers in England
an article by Linda Pickard (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) published in Social Policy and Society Volume 18 Issue 3 (July 2019)
Abstract
In the context of increasing need for long-term care, the reconciliation of employment and caring is an important social issue. In England, the annual public expenditure costs of unpaid carers leaving employment are approximately £2.9 billion.
Previous research shows that provision of paid services to people cared for by working carers, sometimes known as ‘replacement care’, is effective in helping unpaid carers to remain in employment.
This study makes an estimate of the public expenditure costs of ‘replacement care’ for working carers in England.
sing data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and 2015–16 costs data, the study finds that the public expenditure costs of ‘replacement care’ for working carers are approximately £2.5 billion a year, which is considerably lower than the costs of carers leaving employment. The study concludes that greater public investment in ‘replacement care’ to support working carers in England would represent good value for money.
Thursday, 2 May 2019
Why has solving England’s biggest crisis been left to a sacked minister and right-wing think tank? [feedly]
an article by Anoosh Chakelian published in the New Statesman
WWW.352SOW.AF.MIL/LABELLED FOR REUSE
When you hear the word “crisis” used in British politics, it’s usually Brexit and climate change that come to mind. But away from these crises, we’re ignoring a far less glamorous emergency in England – the cost of social care. And by ignoring it, we’re letting our government off the hook.
Social care is a – perhaps damagingly bland – term for the care you are entitled to outside of the health service. It covers children’s services, social workers, foster care, help for people with disabilities and long-term physical or mental health conditions, and provision for the elderly.
You may never need to come into contact with social care services; or you may rely on the system from the day you are born. Either way, it’s difficult to drum up political momentum around a service that the majority of people rarely use.
Perhaps that’s part of why its unsustainability has been ignored for so long. That, and the huge and mounting scale of the problem.
In England, social care is the responsibility of local authorities. (As a devolved matter, there are different systems elsewhere in the UK.) Councils are mandated to provide these services for vulnerable people. It is one of their statutory duties, so if they don’t deliver it, they are breaking the law.
Since austerity began in 2010, whereby government spending on local authorities has been cut back by over half (60 pence in every pound by 2020), councils have had to reduce their spending.
This means less money going on the services that they aren’t legally obliged to deliver, and more of the pie eaten up by social care. In fact, social care spending on children has actually gone up while other services have faced deep cuts.
Continue reading
WWW.352SOW.AF.MIL/LABELLED FOR REUSE
When you hear the word “crisis” used in British politics, it’s usually Brexit and climate change that come to mind. But away from these crises, we’re ignoring a far less glamorous emergency in England – the cost of social care. And by ignoring it, we’re letting our government off the hook.
Social care is a – perhaps damagingly bland – term for the care you are entitled to outside of the health service. It covers children’s services, social workers, foster care, help for people with disabilities and long-term physical or mental health conditions, and provision for the elderly.
You may never need to come into contact with social care services; or you may rely on the system from the day you are born. Either way, it’s difficult to drum up political momentum around a service that the majority of people rarely use.
Perhaps that’s part of why its unsustainability has been ignored for so long. That, and the huge and mounting scale of the problem.
In England, social care is the responsibility of local authorities. (As a devolved matter, there are different systems elsewhere in the UK.) Councils are mandated to provide these services for vulnerable people. It is one of their statutory duties, so if they don’t deliver it, they are breaking the law.
Since austerity began in 2010, whereby government spending on local authorities has been cut back by over half (60 pence in every pound by 2020), councils have had to reduce their spending.
This means less money going on the services that they aren’t legally obliged to deliver, and more of the pie eaten up by social care. In fact, social care spending on children has actually gone up while other services have faced deep cuts.
Continue reading
Sunday, 10 March 2019
Unmet need for social care among older people
an article by Athina Vlachantoni (University of Southampton, UK) published in Ageing & Society Volume 39 Issue 4 (April 2019)
Abstract
Understanding the nature and extent of unmet need for social care among older people is a critical policy priority in the United Kingdom and beyond, as national governments juggle the provision of adequate social care for a growing older population with competing funding priorities.
Several factors can heighten the experience of unmet need among older people, for instance their family environment, and their health and socio-economic status.
This paper contributes empirical evidence on the patterns of unmet need for social care among older people in England today, focusing on the individual characteristics associated with experiencing unmet need in relation to mobility tasks, activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs).
The results show that about 55 per cent of older individuals with an ADL difficulty had unmet need, compared to 24 per cent of those with an IADL difficulty and 80 per cent of those with a mobility difficulty. Characteristics reflecting greater vulnerability were more strongly associated with the risk of experiencing unmet need for ADLs, and such vulnerability was greater for particular ADLs (e.g. bathing), and for a higher number of ADLs.
The findings reaffirm the complexity of conceptualising and empirically investigating unmet need in later life, and add to our understanding of the challenges of providing adequate and appropriate social care to older people.
Full text (HTML)
Abstract
Understanding the nature and extent of unmet need for social care among older people is a critical policy priority in the United Kingdom and beyond, as national governments juggle the provision of adequate social care for a growing older population with competing funding priorities.
Several factors can heighten the experience of unmet need among older people, for instance their family environment, and their health and socio-economic status.
This paper contributes empirical evidence on the patterns of unmet need for social care among older people in England today, focusing on the individual characteristics associated with experiencing unmet need in relation to mobility tasks, activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs).
The results show that about 55 per cent of older individuals with an ADL difficulty had unmet need, compared to 24 per cent of those with an IADL difficulty and 80 per cent of those with a mobility difficulty. Characteristics reflecting greater vulnerability were more strongly associated with the risk of experiencing unmet need for ADLs, and such vulnerability was greater for particular ADLs (e.g. bathing), and for a higher number of ADLs.
The findings reaffirm the complexity of conceptualising and empirically investigating unmet need in later life, and add to our understanding of the challenges of providing adequate and appropriate social care to older people.
Full text (HTML)
Friday, 15 February 2019
If telecare is the answer, what was the question? Storylines, tensions and the unintended consequences of technology-supported care
an article by Jennifer K. Lynch (University of Hertfordshire, England), Jon Glasby (University of Birmingham, England) and Suzanne Robinson (Curtin University, Australia) published in Critical Social Policy Volume 39 Issue 1 (February 2019)
Abstract
Telecare – services employing technology to monitor people’s movement, medication and home environment at a distance – has emerged as a key component of global social care and health policies.
The relationship between policies about telecare and the experiences and aspirations of service users has been under-interrogated.
This article draws on findings from an organisational case study involving people living with complex conditions using various telecare devices and employs Hajer’s (1995) concept of argumentative discourse analysis to identify two key storylines arguing that telecare improves people’s quality of life and promotes independence.
While these storylines point to seemingly logical and incontestable objectives, uncritical policy and practice fails to recognise and prioritise the aspirations of service users, leading to unintended consequences that can deepen people’s isolation and minimise organisational benefits.
Abstract
Telecare – services employing technology to monitor people’s movement, medication and home environment at a distance – has emerged as a key component of global social care and health policies.
The relationship between policies about telecare and the experiences and aspirations of service users has been under-interrogated.
This article draws on findings from an organisational case study involving people living with complex conditions using various telecare devices and employs Hajer’s (1995) concept of argumentative discourse analysis to identify two key storylines arguing that telecare improves people’s quality of life and promotes independence.
While these storylines point to seemingly logical and incontestable objectives, uncritical policy and practice fails to recognise and prioritise the aspirations of service users, leading to unintended consequences that can deepen people’s isolation and minimise organisational benefits.
Monday, 10 December 2018
The Carers’ Covenant: why we are calling on the Government to introduce a bold new policy agenda for carers
a post by Ben Glover for the DEMOS blog
Everyone knows social care desperately needs to change but there is little agreement of how. It comes as no surprise then that the Government’s Green Paper on the matter is several months late. Could informal carers, so neglected in today’s public debate about social care, offer a route out of this political impasse?
In new research published today, Demos finds informal carers are making an enormous societal contribution, saving the UK an estimated £139bn a year. It is no exaggeration to say that our entire formal health and social care systems would collapse tomorrow without them.
But too many carers feel their invaluable work goes unrecognised. Carers we spoke to in Leeds and London were struggling and finding it hard to cope. Caring was affecting their finances, pushing many of them towards poverty. It was harming their relationships and affecting their health and well-being. Worst of all, society appeared to be doing almost nothing about this.
Continue reading includes link to the full report.
Everyone knows social care desperately needs to change but there is little agreement of how. It comes as no surprise then that the Government’s Green Paper on the matter is several months late. Could informal carers, so neglected in today’s public debate about social care, offer a route out of this political impasse?
In new research published today, Demos finds informal carers are making an enormous societal contribution, saving the UK an estimated £139bn a year. It is no exaggeration to say that our entire formal health and social care systems would collapse tomorrow without them.
But too many carers feel their invaluable work goes unrecognised. Carers we spoke to in Leeds and London were struggling and finding it hard to cope. Caring was affecting their finances, pushing many of them towards poverty. It was harming their relationships and affecting their health and well-being. Worst of all, society appeared to be doing almost nothing about this.
Continue reading includes link to the full report.
Sunday, 17 December 2017
Clergy in place in England: Bias to the poor or inverse care law?
an article by Michael Hirst (University of York, UK) published in Population, Space and Place Volume 23 Issue 8 (November 2017)
Abstract
Faith traditions frequently proclaim priority for the poor and socially marginalised, emphasising individual and collective responsibility towards those in poverty. Ordained ministers or clergy – possibly the main investment of religious organisations – play a key role in encouraging and fulfilling that commitment in their local settings.
This paper considers the availability of clergy to provide pastoral care in areas of high socio-economic deprivation. Data from the 2011 census of England are used to correlate area variations in the number of clergy with household and neighbourhood deprivation.
Findings show that clergy are distributed inversely to socio-economic deprivation at the ecological level. Fewer clergy are available or readily accessible in the most deprived areas, raising questions about their ability to respond pastorally and act politically on behalf of the poor.
Market forces that draw clergy deployments towards less deprived areas warrant further investigation.
Abstract
Faith traditions frequently proclaim priority for the poor and socially marginalised, emphasising individual and collective responsibility towards those in poverty. Ordained ministers or clergy – possibly the main investment of religious organisations – play a key role in encouraging and fulfilling that commitment in their local settings.
This paper considers the availability of clergy to provide pastoral care in areas of high socio-economic deprivation. Data from the 2011 census of England are used to correlate area variations in the number of clergy with household and neighbourhood deprivation.
Findings show that clergy are distributed inversely to socio-economic deprivation at the ecological level. Fewer clergy are available or readily accessible in the most deprived areas, raising questions about their ability to respond pastorally and act politically on behalf of the poor.
Market forces that draw clergy deployments towards less deprived areas warrant further investigation.
Tuesday, 5 December 2017
Bread for All review – how Britain is regressing to the early 19th century
an article by Stefan Collini published in the Guardian
St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, in 1939. Before the NHS, many people could not afford even basic medical care. Photograph: Kurt Hutton/Getty Images
Kingsley Wood, the Tory chancellor of the exchequer in the wartime coalition government, grudgingly conceded in 1943 that he would “rather give money for education than throw it down the sink with Sir William Beveridge”. Beveridge had certainly designed a very big sink. His formidably technical 300-page report, Social Insurance and Allied Services, published in 1942, laid out an ambitious system of social security that built on, but went well beyond, the mosaic of services that had grown up piecemeal over the previous half century or more. The report was a surprising bestseller: 100,000 copies were sold in the first four weeks.
The government was reluctant to endorse such a disruptive and expensive scheme, but most public opinion was strongly on Beveridge’s side. In a familiar attempt to scare the electorate, the Daily Telegraph misquoted Beveridge saying that his report was taking the country “half-way to Moscow”. In reality, he was taking it no further east than Whitechapel and Poplar, the social laboratories in which so much late-Victorian and Edwardian thinking about the best means to relieve poverty had been incubated.
Continue reading this fascinating review. The changes happened in my lifetime but I was too young to appreciate them at the time. One thing I do notice though is that the political conservatism that I grew up with is nothing like the Tory Party as it now is.Bread for All: The Origins of the Welfare State is published by Allen Lane. To order a copy for £17 (RRP £20) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, in 1939. Before the NHS, many people could not afford even basic medical care. Photograph: Kurt Hutton/Getty Images
Kingsley Wood, the Tory chancellor of the exchequer in the wartime coalition government, grudgingly conceded in 1943 that he would “rather give money for education than throw it down the sink with Sir William Beveridge”. Beveridge had certainly designed a very big sink. His formidably technical 300-page report, Social Insurance and Allied Services, published in 1942, laid out an ambitious system of social security that built on, but went well beyond, the mosaic of services that had grown up piecemeal over the previous half century or more. The report was a surprising bestseller: 100,000 copies were sold in the first four weeks.
The government was reluctant to endorse such a disruptive and expensive scheme, but most public opinion was strongly on Beveridge’s side. In a familiar attempt to scare the electorate, the Daily Telegraph misquoted Beveridge saying that his report was taking the country “half-way to Moscow”. In reality, he was taking it no further east than Whitechapel and Poplar, the social laboratories in which so much late-Victorian and Edwardian thinking about the best means to relieve poverty had been incubated.
Continue reading this fascinating review. The changes happened in my lifetime but I was too young to appreciate them at the time. One thing I do notice though is that the political conservatism that I grew up with is nothing like the Tory Party as it now is.Bread for All: The Origins of the Welfare State is published by Allen Lane. To order a copy for £17 (RRP £20) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
Sunday, 15 October 2017
Do Personal Budgets Increase the Risk of Abuse? Evidence from English National Data
Mohamed Ismail (Analytical Research Ltd, Woking, Surrey),
Kritika Samsi, Shereen Hussein, Martin Stevens, John Woolham and Jill Manthorpe
(King's College London, UK)
and Fiona Aspinal and Kate Baxter (University of York, UK)
published in
Journal of Social Policy
Volume 46 Issue 2 (April 2017)
Abstract
With the continued implementation of the personalisation policy, Personal Budgets (PBs) have moved to the mainstream in adult social care in England. The relationship between the policy goals of personalisation and safeguarding is contentious. Some have argued that PBs have the potential to empower recipients, while others believe PBs, especially Direct Payments, might increase the risk of abuse.
This paper provides empirical evidence about levels of uptake of PBs and safeguarding referrals in England based on in-depth analysis of national data at aggregate, local council level in England, covering 152 Councils.
This is complemented by analysis of 2,209 individual referral records obtained from three purposively selected study sites. The aim is to explore whether available data could provide evidence of association between the uptake of PBs and safeguarding referrals.
Analysis of the national dataset found no significant relationships between PB uptake and the level and type of alleged abuse. However, analysis of individual-level referral data, from the three selected sites did find some significant associations particularly with financial abuse; and found the main perpetrators of the alleged abuse to be home-care employees.
The findings are discussed within the context of current policy and practice.
Full text (PDF 21pp)
Abstract
With the continued implementation of the personalisation policy, Personal Budgets (PBs) have moved to the mainstream in adult social care in England. The relationship between the policy goals of personalisation and safeguarding is contentious. Some have argued that PBs have the potential to empower recipients, while others believe PBs, especially Direct Payments, might increase the risk of abuse.
This paper provides empirical evidence about levels of uptake of PBs and safeguarding referrals in England based on in-depth analysis of national data at aggregate, local council level in England, covering 152 Councils.
This is complemented by analysis of 2,209 individual referral records obtained from three purposively selected study sites. The aim is to explore whether available data could provide evidence of association between the uptake of PBs and safeguarding referrals.
Analysis of the national dataset found no significant relationships between PB uptake and the level and type of alleged abuse. However, analysis of individual-level referral data, from the three selected sites did find some significant associations particularly with financial abuse; and found the main perpetrators of the alleged abuse to be home-care employees.
The findings are discussed within the context of current policy and practice.
Full text (PDF 21pp)
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
The welfare myth of them and us
via Policy Press: a blog post
Read the complete preface to the second edition of John Hill’s influential Good times, bad times below. This ground-breaking book uses extensive research and survey evidence to challenge the myth that the population divides into those who benefit from the welfare state and those who pay into it – ‘skivers’ and ‘strivers’, ‘them’ and ‘us’.
“Good times, bad times was completed in 2014. A great deal has happened in UK politics and policy since then, not least the election of a majority Conservative government led by David Cameron in May 2015, the result of the referendum in June 2016 for Britain to leave the European Union, and the subsequent appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister in July 2016.
Through all of this, the issues discussed in this book have remained central. One of its themes is the way that our lives are ever-changing.
Sometimes this is simply because we get older, we form – and dissolve – marriages and other partnerships, children are born, and they leave home.
But it is also because we move in and out of work, change and lose jobs, and what comes in from work and other sources can change not just from year to- year with our careers, but also from month-to-month, or even day-to-day, in ways highlighted by the spread of ‘zero hours contracts’.
Our needs – for education and for health and social care – change as we grow older, but also with the fluctuations in our state of health.
Continue reading
Read the complete preface to the second edition of John Hill’s influential Good times, bad times below. This ground-breaking book uses extensive research and survey evidence to challenge the myth that the population divides into those who benefit from the welfare state and those who pay into it – ‘skivers’ and ‘strivers’, ‘them’ and ‘us’.
“Good times, bad times was completed in 2014. A great deal has happened in UK politics and policy since then, not least the election of a majority Conservative government led by David Cameron in May 2015, the result of the referendum in June 2016 for Britain to leave the European Union, and the subsequent appointment of Theresa May as Prime Minister in July 2016.
Through all of this, the issues discussed in this book have remained central. One of its themes is the way that our lives are ever-changing.
Sometimes this is simply because we get older, we form – and dissolve – marriages and other partnerships, children are born, and they leave home.
But it is also because we move in and out of work, change and lose jobs, and what comes in from work and other sources can change not just from year to- year with our careers, but also from month-to-month, or even day-to-day, in ways highlighted by the spread of ‘zero hours contracts’.
Our needs – for education and for health and social care – change as we grow older, but also with the fluctuations in our state of health.
Continue reading
Monday, 7 November 2011
Social Care in Adult Education …
Resisting a Marketplace Agenda
an article by Nancy Taber (Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) published in Adult Education Quarterly Volume 61 Number 4 (November 2011)
Abstract
This article describes a research study about the experiences of adult educators in which the stories of three of the participants were central in exploring the issue of social care in adult education. It proposes that the adult educators with a social care orientation in this study acknowledge the importance of, and work to provide for,:
an article by Nancy Taber (Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada) published in Adult Education Quarterly Volume 61 Number 4 (November 2011)
Abstract
This article describes a research study about the experiences of adult educators in which the stories of three of the participants were central in exploring the issue of social care in adult education. It proposes that the adult educators with a social care orientation in this study acknowledge the importance of, and work to provide for,:
- human needs (e.g., food, shelter, and belonging),
- care (working from an ethical affective orientation as opposed to a rational justice orientation), and
- social justice (a power analysis focusing on marginalization and oppression in a capitalist society).
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