The BBC's File on 4 last week broadcast an important analysis of the state of home care. A survey of all local authorities in England discovered severe cuts in spending on care services leading some home care providers to withdraw their operations because of inadequate funding. However the real impact of the cuts is being born by elderly and disabled service users whose quality of care is being badly reduced and the low paid workforce struggling to deliver a decent service with inadequate resources and time. In the programme Labour's shadow health minister Andy Burnham acknowledges that previous governments across the board have failed to integrate with heath care and properly resource social care. Every UNISON branch which organises in councils which commission home care services must press for the adoption the union's ethical care charter:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03szh9m
http://www.unison.org.uk/upload/sharepoint/Research%20Material/Final%20Ethical%20Care%20Charter%20PDF.pdf
