A council scrutiny committee will be warned later today on the serious issues facing home help services in Bridgend (pdf).
Care-at-home is significantly cheaper to provide (£200-per-week) than residential care (£628-per-week) – but the report paints a stark picture of the coming crisis in social care which threatens to undo years of work.
“….this service is the foundation of the whole health and social care system and unless there is sufficient quality and capacity of provision the whole system, and our most vulnerable people, are at risk.”
One pressure is staff. The care sector remains relatively low paid and has poorer working conditions than the NHS (despite the Welsh Government aim to put care on the same level as health). This has led to staff retention problems as other jobs in other sectors where skills are transferrable (like healthcare or hospitality) are usually better paid.
BCBC has received Welsh Government funding to help pay care workers the living wage, but it’s unclear how this will be funded after 2021-22 – which could result in an additional cost to the council.
In terms of the impact of the pandemic on demand, it was said to be up to 8% higher in August 2021 compared to a year earlier.
Issues expected to have an impact in the short to medium-term include people recovering from “long Covid”, increased rates of dementia, the impact of hospital waiting lists for routine treatment and the mental health impact of extended periods of social isolation (caused by pandemic lockdowns and shielding).
Combined, these issues are said to have resulted in the longest waiting list for care packages in Bridgend Council’s history.
So the next question is, “What are Bridgend Council doing about it?”
An action plan has been drafted to manage demand for care – this includes fast-tracking direct payments, short-term increases in staffing and a more flexible delivery model in the longer term.
The flexible delivery model will be what’s described as “outcome-based”. This means that instead of trying to do everything or ticking a box of set tasks, carers will focus on improving the quality of life for their clients – which may mean doing more or less depending on how far the client is away from doing things for themselves.
Bridgend Council takes a similar approach to respite care/carer’s breaks and has received praise for it.
A new “outcome-based” contract for home help/domiciliary care is currently out for tender and is expected to start from April 2022.
