Having shared your journey through this campaign I have at times felt helplessness and great sorrow. I have also felt a degree of anxiety as I have a 25 year old son in a residential placement who although well placed and looked after by well trained and lovely staff is so vulnerable and I worry about him every day. As with Winterbourne it is disgraceful that action to address serious shortcomings in Care seems to need someone to suffer sustained and extreme hardship or die before anyone will do anything. We have to change the agenda and make sure that each person is at the centre of everything and that Care providers can prove that they are doing what they say they are doing. Glossy brochures and promises mean nothing and we must insist on robust systems, snap inspections and more involvement by experts by experience (us) to be able to influence how our young people are looked after.
We must also make sure that all staff are competent and for me this means that you need not only training but also experience of the person that you are looking after before becoming responsible for their care. I think there should be a National framework which states minimum standards for this to stop the use of, for example, Agency staff being parachuted in without ever having met the person with probably no idea how best to support them.
Providers must accept a responsibility to treat their staff responsibly and in addition to paying them properly must provide support and well as training so that staff feel valued and looked after. Staffing must include contingency to avoid a shortfall of Carers at all times. Commissioners beware, the lowest cost tender is probably not anywhere near good enough and the people who will ultimately pay for this are the ones being looked after. A recession is no excuse to put vulnerable people at risk.
Finally we really need to make sure that the law allows owners and senior executives to be prosecuted for failings as well as those lower down. At the moment they can literally get away with murder and this must stop. Though not relevant in this case, Care is increasingly being seen primarily as a profit making venture with the balance sheet driving everything. Safeguards need to be in place to again make sure that a high standard of Care is the thing that matters and not the bottom line. Every Care home should have a sign outside that reads SPECTULATORS NOT WELCOME HERE.
Really finally I just wanted to say how much I admire you for creating and driving this campaign, it has been so inspiring to see how LB’s story has motivated so many, probably thousands of people, to make their voices heard and I am certain this is going to make a big difference for us all. Thank you from me and thank you on behalf of my son as well who like so many others will I am certain benefit through hugely increased National awareness and reflection made possible by your stand.
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