Shining a light on Scotland’s broken social care system!

HELP TO SHINE A LIGHT ON SCOTLAND’S BROKEN SOCIAL CARE SYSTEM!

Twenty years ago, the Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act, 2002, enshrined in law the statutory entitlement to Free Personal Care for those who qualified. In its wisdom, the Implementation Steering Group determined that “It is for the individual local authority to decide how best to comply with the regulations and the guidance” which gave, in effect, discretion to local authorities to “not bother” and, within a matter of years to employ social workers for the express purpose of denying people the social care they desperately needed – and to go to any length to achieve this, including threatening people and creating division within families.

And so, Scotland’s social care system was brought to its knees by the public sector bodies with authority to administer and regulate it without effective oversight and no-one being held to account or sanctioned when things go wrong as they routinely do.

BetterCareScotland would like to hear from you if you were less than satisfied by the response or outcome to a complaint which you or a family member or friend raised with a local authority, a care home, a community care group and/or Scotland’s Care Inspectorate.

If your local authority or the Care Inspectorate stonewalled you, then work with BetterCareScotland and announce it to the world. From the lived experiences of our subscribers, meaningful conclusions can be drawn about Scotland’s broken social care system so that the country’s proposed National Care Service can be intelligently informed.

Did a local authority or Scotland’s Care Inspectorate refuse to listen to you or a family member or friend? Did either body fail to investigate your complaint in a meaningful way? Were you confident that the Care Inspectorate acted independently of your local authority and/or the care provider?

Did these bodies fail to keep a faithful record of events. Our data show that care group homes are routinely exposed in the Press over relatively trivial matters, with spokespeople from the local authority social care division and the Care Inspectorate keen to oblige with a comment, while abuse is covered up in Council-favoured independent care homes where residents are knowingly exposed to risk.

Did care home staff or a community care team dismiss your concerns or fail to record or report an incident? Then, announce it to the world!

Did a local authority fail to protect your private information?

Do you trust your social worker? Do you feel that your social worker is acting in your best interests? Have you received conflicting opinions from social workers? Do you suspect that your social worker’s role is to deny you your statutory entitlement by failing to assess your needs.

Do you feel that your council social care department is over-staffed given the resources they are employing to deny you your rights? What tactics did your social worker use to do so. Has your social worker intimated a desire to blow the whistle on a care home owner who has the council over a barrel but fears the repercussions? Has your social worker ever suggested they are forced to follow a council policy which they regard as illegal?

BetterCareScotland knows of one centenarian being forced to fund her care for SEVENTEEN MONTHS from her modest life savings solely because her social worker failed to assess her care needs – a saving of around FOURTEEN THOUSAND POUNDS for the Council chief executive, whose staff then proceeded to stonewall the woman’s request for payment of the arrears of Free Personal Care Allowance. Is SEVENTEEN MONTHS a record?

How long did your local authority take to process your Personal Care Allowance or Self-directed Support entitlement? Did they fail completely to do so? Do you believe that they failed to assess the care needs of a family member or friend simply to avoid processing and paying their statutory entitlement? Get in touch and let us know and, together, we will compile a league table of Scotland’s worst-offending councils.

Perhaps, you are one of many social workers in modern Scotland who thought they would be able to make a difference to people’s lives but find that you are being paid to deny people the social care they need. Does your council chief executive preside over a culture of fear? Have you considered blowing the whistle? Do you believe that your career would be at risk for doing so? Have you raised your concerns with your professional body?

These scenarios describe some of the experiences of people who have reached out to BetterCareScotland. We find that such scenarios are systematic at councils where they are observed. Your feedback will help to determine if these experiences reflect only the culture of specific councils or are system-wide in Scotland. Together, we will influence the form and structure of Scotland’s National Care Plan to ensure that Scotland delivers on its promises to its people.