Many of us provide care and many of us receive care. Often, we do this as a normal part of our relationships – just looking after family, friends, and neighbours.
Some people who are more comfortably off might be able to pay for a personal assistant to provide them with care and support. But many other people have no-one to provide the care they need, or the type and level of care that they need is more than the people who look after them can cope with, and they can’t afford to pay someone to care for them. In these circumstances, the local Council will assess care and support needs and decide whether they will fund the support needed.
Unfortunately, there is a national care crisis. Councils don’t have enough money to meet need, care staff are poorly paid, staff turnover is fast, and the quality of care provided can be very poor.
Across residential and home care, the “care market” is dominated by large organisations whose focus is the bottom-line and returns to owners and investors.
We believe that things can be done differently – and a lot better – by small-scale, community-owned organisations whose focus is on the well-being of local people and their families.
The pay and the status of care work should be much higher, recognising it as the important and skilled work that it is. While social care needs more funding nationally, we believe we can make a big difference in Middleton through supporting the development of social care co-ops and similar organisations. This would have a massive impact on well-being for a lot of people.
For more information on social care co-ops, please see:
- Co-operative Care Colne Valley
If you’d like to get involved in social care co-ops in Middleton, please contact us at care@middleton.coop
