The partners working on the Helpcare project held their first meeting at Lancaster University on 28th and 29th January 2015. It was great to get all the team together in one place after several months of working by Skype and email. We were able to plan in more detail the first stages of our research and also to work out which organisations and groups of individuals might like to take part in our project.
It’s Time to HelpCare: A European Crisis - Carolyn Downs discusses the latest recommendations from the HelpCare project which call for better formal education and training in the care sector, to create a career path for carers. Click the link for the latest issue of Tomorrow’s care magazine… The vicious circle of low status homecare work must be broken. - Carolyn Downs writes for the Guardian: The majority of homecare workers are immigrants who do a great job, but care work needs to be a more attractive and credible career option. https://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/mar/05/vicious-circle-homecare-care-work Unison’s Homecare Training Survey Report - Since 2010, huge reductions in social care budgets have impacted on the quality of homecare for the elderly and disabled in the UK. This report details the findings of the research and states that many carers are expected to provide… The number of care workers on zero-hours contracts jumps to one in seven. - An article in the Guardian ‘finds ‘endemic’ abuse of minimum wage laws. One of the areas the article discusses is the often common practice of not paying carers for their travel time. Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/17/care-workers-zero-hours-contracts-unison-minimum-wage Best Practice Report UK - Here you can read some of our research into the current state of provision and training alongside some best practice examples from the UK and the Netherlands.