Andrew Thomson, Deputy Chief Executive, answers the question: Is social care in crisis?
Any news report will shout loudly in the affirmative: social care is in crisis! The reporting will highlight that too many people don’t have access to the right support; too many unpaid carers are struggling; too few people choose to work in the sector, and for those that do, the remuneration is too low. Social Care is surely in perpetual crisis.
But Carr Gomm provides a significant and positive impact into the lives of over 3,000 people and families every week. Our person-centred approach means that our skilled practitioners listen deeply to people and so understand what really matters to them. Our innovative and creative approach to solving intractable problems ensures that we are proactive in developing new ways to provide the right support at the right time. Carr Gomm is certainly not in crisis.
Is it possible that the answer to this blunt question contains a level of nuance and context that is too often missed by the commentariat?
The National Care Service provides an opportunity to improve our whole social care system: to ensure that everyone has the right to access excellent person-centred support to live their best life. Derek Feeley recognised this in his Independent Review of Adult Social Care. Carr Gomm and the people we support recognised this in our written submissions to consultations and in our contributions to politicians.
Now we need the powerful and influential to recognise this too.
We need them to learn from organisations like Carr Gomm that already impact positively throughout the country, to embed access to person-centred social care as a fundamental human right; and to invest appropriately in a revolutionised system that recognises how important social care is to every family and community in Scotland.
Find out more about how Carr Gomm is influencing the National Care Service on our Influencing Change page.
