Background
Adult social care is severely underfunded. Very vulnerable adults are being discharged home to be cared for by friends and family because it is very difficult to get professional adult social care support these days.
Lead Policy – We’ll direct the Public Health department to measure, target and reduce health inequalities in the City.
Listening to those with support needs:
• Labour will give disabled adults and older people choice and control over the support they need by properly listening to them and the people that support them.
• We’ll set up a new partnership with people who give unpaid care to ensure they don’t put themselves at risk by looking after the people they love.
We want people to have good choices about where to live, making Home-First a real option:
• People should be able to make informed choices about what’s best for them and have the option of good at-home and in-care facilities. We will work to destigmatize good Care Home care.
• For those that choose ‘home first’, we will work with housing providers to ensure older and disabled people can stay in their own homes as long as possible.
• We’ll expand the handy person scheme and increase investment in home adaptations (including appropriate technology).
• We’ll review the home share scheme to see if it can be made to work.
We’ll work with and respond to disabled people directly:
• Disabled people have the same rights as everyone else and we’ll listen directly to them about their needs. With their help we’ll identify and remove barriers to everyday living, and we’ll address the transition from childhood to adulthood for disabled people.
• We recognise those who use social care services and their carers as ‘Experts through Experience’ and we’ll ask them to advise and help train others.
We’ll recognise and value social care staff and work collaboratively with them:
• We’ll set up a York Social Care Forum for workers and carers to exchange ideas and develop more effective care.
• In cooperation with education providers, we’ll promote better training for all social care staff and unpaid carers across the city and invite workers from the voluntary and private sectors to attend training courses run by the council.
• The role of care-workers in supporting the people of our city can only grow and needs to grow in recognition. To do this, we’ll improve council care-workers’ terms and conditions and recognise their professional status. We’ll give help with housing and childcare costs to help improve employment and retention of council social care staff.
• We’ll help support the development of ‘micro providers’ (one or two person businesses) in the sector who can often provide bespoke care that fits with the needs of individuals.
• Social workers and care workers will be given ‘agency bank’ opportunities through the council’s ‘Work for York’ business.
We’ll respect, value and work with the voluntary sector:
• We’ll value the social care services provided by voluntary sector organisations in York and will recognise them as partners working together with the Council for the benefit of those needing support.
• We’ll invest appropriately in statutory and voluntary sector innovation.
Labour will work with the NHS:
• We’ll base Social Services staff in GP surgeries to give advice to patients and carers and to identify social care needs early.
• We’ll promote the work of ‘wellbeing teams,’ to support people with their mental health.
• We’ll direct the Public Health department to target and reduce health inequalities in the city.
• And we’ll support the further implementation of social prescribing, by enabling people to have access to a range of non-medical services with proven values to support their health and wellbeing.
Labour will implement a dementia strategy owned by people living with dementia:
• We’ll encourage our staff to talk openly about dementia and challenge the stigma associated with it.
• We will involve people living with dementia in designing and delivering services around their needs, and in the decision-making which results from this.
• We’ll promote greater understanding of what dementia is and how it affects people’s daily lives.
• Working with commissioners, we will invest in appropriate support.