It has been confirmed today that the court of appeal have overturned a tribunal decision made in 2015 to pay care and support workers national living wage for sleep-ins and back dating their pay for 6 years.
Mencap, a nationwide care provider and Care England, who represent independent social care providers, challenged the tribunal ruling and today successfully overturned the original decision.
One topic which I am extremely passionate about is First Aid. I genuinely believe that everyone should have some awareness of First Aid and the skills to give them confidence if they found themselves in a situation where someone required First Aid. Personally, I have been trained in First Aid since I was 18 years old, as I have always worked in the care industry, however, thankfully, I have rarely used these skills which I have been repeatedly trained in. A friend of mine, Becky, a self-employed painter, had never had any First Aid training when late one night, her Dad had a cardiac arrest and she performed CPR. Incredibly she managed to get his heart working again. In this situation Becky was able to listen to the 999 call handlers instructions and carry out these required actions. We never know when we may find ourselves in these situations where quick thinking and quick actions could save someone’s life.
According to figures from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey 2017, only 23% of the public said they are satisfied with social care and dissatisfaction was a whopping 41%!
Now it is important to note that these figures are not just from patients of services. I know many care providers who can boast 90+ percent approval ratings. These figures are from members of the public, many of whom will not have used services themselves but are asked to draw on ‘their own experiences, as well as experiences of their friends and family and to include opinions they have drawn from other sources such as the media.’
Loneliness is a very topical issue at the moment and a lot of people are thinking, “What can I do to help?”
Our Prime Minister appointed a Minister of Loneliness in January 2018 to help combat this issue. In Suffolk alone, there are 40,000 people who feel lonely (Mike Hennessey, Suffolk Country Council Director of Adults and Community Services) , apparently there is no demographic group immune to this feeling; so our children, teenagers, parents, neighbours, friends, grand-parents
and great grandparents are vulnerable to the emotion.
We started our business, Ocala Healthcare, in Suffolk this year. Very exciting times! It has been a huge and enjoyable learning curve.
When you dream about starting your own business, you’re not imagining reading your public liability insurance policy, you’re not imagining writing policies and you are definitely not imagining learning the ins and outs of the new data protection legislation!
You think about making the sale, doing it better than those before you and ultimately being successful!
Becoming a home care assistant in Suffolk was one of the greatest experiences of my time in care. It allowed me to see the importance of care being delivered at home and the impact that this can have.
Having care delivered at home can be the difference between
People often ask me, “why do you do this?” or “how did you get started in the care industry”, or the classic question “did you always want to work in care?”. I grapple with finding answers to these questions. At a young age I found myself stumbling into the industry, similarly to how I stumble with the answers to these questions. When I was at school I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I did know I wanted to help people.
Back when I had a pudding bowl haircut, I never imagined that I would work in healthcare. (If you had a pudding bowl haircut, what did you want to be when you grew up? And I’m expecting to see #backwhenIhadaPudBowl trending on social media)
I thought about joining the police, or becoming an an electrician like my dad. But through all my options, I certainly never considered healthcare; I don’t like blood or needles for a start!
So here we are again at the start of a new year! I have already made and broken my resolution, but cheese is my weakness and I will go down with that delicious cheese filled ship! Continue reading “New Year, New Me, New Job?”
Welcome to Ocala healthcare! Now read that again and imagine that John Hammond from Jurassic park was saying it and imagine those big wooden doors are opening… still with me? excellent!
I have created this little post so that those of you following us wondering what in the world does Ocala mean? What does it hope to achieve? and How can we help? can gain some answers!
