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Does age matter in the social care workforce?
- Authors:
- LIPMAN Valerie, MANTHORPE Jill, HARRIS Jess
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Long-Term Care, September 2018, pp.1-11. Online only
- Publisher:
- King's College London
- Place of publication:
- London
Context: With the population in England ageing, more people are living with complex physical and mental health needs and need care and support. As a result demand for care workers is increasing. Objective: This paper presents findings from qualitative research in England that aimed to explore the perspectives of frontline care workers, their managers and service users about what difference the age of the care workforce potentially makes at an individual, organisational or workforce level. Method: Interviews, semi-structured and face to face, in four local authority sites in England. Findings: Age plays a role in the perceived character of the care workforce. A commonly-held view is that life experience is one of the most valuable qualities a care worker brings to their role. While experience is generally valued, it may be framed as experience in care work, or more generally as life experience. Younger care workers may be often seen by older colleagues and service users as less reliable until they prove themselves. However, managers often identify enthusiasm and ability to accommodate change among younger care staff. Managers are interested in having an ‘age mix’ of staff beyond retention and sustainability issues. Limitations: The authors acknowledge the risk that the interview data may not be generalisable or totally representative of staff or care users; the study did not include directly employed care workers nor collect health-related information or personal narratives. Those employers who agreed to participate may be more committed to workforce development and value their staff. Nonetheless data are sector-wide and there are sizeable numbers of participants. Moreover, the views of users of social care and family carers are also included. Implications: The article provides views from a range of stakeholders in social care on whether age matters in this workforce. Instances of age discrimination or stereotypes affecting different ages were reported but also the opportunities in social care work for people to work in later life and to move to this work after other work or family experiences. The age of the social care workforce needs to be considered as part of workforce planning, tailoring skills development and value-based work commitment among all age groups, reducing physical demands, and providing flexible working conditions. (Edited publisher abstract)
Serious case reviews into dementia care: an analysis of context and content
- Authors:
- MANTHORPE Jill, MARTINEAU Stephen
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 46(2), 2016, pp.514-531.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
Adult Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) are commissioned by local Safeguarding Boards to investigate how local professionals and agencies worked together to safeguard a vulnerable adult following an incident of abuse, harm or death if the Board identifies concerns about agencies' actions from which lessons may be learned. This paper presents the results of a study undertaken in 2013 analysing Adult SCRs where the person who was at risk of harm, or had been harmed or died, had a dementia. Of the eighty-four SCRs available, fourteen were identified as involving a person with dementia and in a further seven the victim(s) may have had dementia. Discrete themes are presented: the situation of self- or publicly funded residents; the potential of poor care quality in all settings for people with dementia, and by different staff and family carers; the lack of communication with family members; and poor integration of care for people with dementia. The SCRs provide vivid illustrations of the ‘faultlines’ that may exist in dementia support systems. In England, Adult SCRs are moving to a statutory basis under the Care Act 2014 and this paper draws attention to their potential as learning materials in dementia care for commissioners, for social workers and for safeguarding practice. (Publisher abstract)
Examining day centre provision for older people in the UK using the Equality Act 2010: findings of a scoping review
- Authors:
- MANTHORPE Jill, MORIARTY Jo
- Journal article citation:
- Health and Social Care in the Community, 22(4), 2014, pp.352-360.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This article reports the findings from a literature review of day care services undertaken during March–June 2012 and repeated in May 2013. The databases searched included AgeInfo, Embase, Medline, PsycINFO, Social Care Online, Web of Science and the publication platform Ingenta Connect as well as specialist older people's sites. It discusses these findings in the context of services for older people in the UK, defined as those aged 65 years and over. The aim of the scoping review was to identify what is known about how day services (here confined to congregate day care or day centres) will meet the challenges posed by the Equality Act 2010 in supporting different user groups, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older people or older people from minority ethnic groups. The review found that research on all aspects of day services was limited and that information about older people using such services was often provided context-free. It concludes that those funding or evaluating day services' support to diverse groups of older people need to urgently address matters such as differential access and differential views about specific services. (Publisher abstract)
FACS or Fiction? The impact of the policy Fair Access to Care Services on social care assessments of older visually impaired people
- Authors:
- CHARLES Nigel, MANTHORPE Jill
- Journal article citation:
- Practice: Social Work in Action, 19(2), June 2007, pp.143-157.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
The Department of Health's Fair Access to Care Services (FACS) policy initiative was intended to achieve a greater degree of equity and consistency in the assessment and provision of social care services to adults in England. This article reports on the impact of this policy some 18 months after it was implemented. It is based on interviews carried out in one local authority with a sample of six practitioners specialising in the assessment of the social care needs of visually impaired people. The findings from this small-scale study suggest that FACS has not made substantial difference to the social care assessments of older visually impaired people by specialist assessors. At least four factors seem to have rendered FACS largely ineffective in the reported practice of this one group of social work staff and these reflect their relative autonomy. These are an absence of FACS training for practitioners, collective agreement by practitioners about what they should do in practice, an ability and willingness by practitioners to use professional discretion, and the ambiguity of purpose at the heart of the FACS policy.
Fresh fields: rural social care: research, policy and practice agendas
- Authors:
- CRAIG Gary, MANTHORPE Jill
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Publication year:
- 2000
- Pagination:
- 56p.,bibliog.
- Place of publication:
- Layerthorpe
This report focuses on the difficulties surrounding the provision of good quality, affordable and appropriate social care for older people and those with disability who live in Britain's sparsely populated areas. It draws on a wide ranging literature review, a reanalysis of data collected on local government reorganisation and on a telephone survey of rural authorities to set out agendas for research, policy and practice for those concerned with the provision of rural social care.