It feels like a lifetime since Boris Johnson assumed office as Prime Minister in July 2019. In his first speech as Prime Minister, he promised that he would solve the crisis in the social care system. We are well used to Prime Ministers breaking their promises, but in this particular instance, a broken promise is now costing thousands of lives. In the ten months since that speech, this aforementioned crisis has made itself starkly apparent as care homes have become the epicentre of the COVID19 pandemic in Britain.
Approximately 400,000 elderly people were living in care homes in the UK prior to the pandemic. Two thirds of care homes have since reported that their residents have contracted COVID19, although the death toll itself remains unknown, primarily because of the government’s failure- until this week- to acknowledge deaths in the community- including deaths in care homes- as part of their daily death toll. It would now appear that our care homes have been facing outbreaks just as severe, if not even more severe, than those faced by hospitals: according to Chris Witty on Sunday 12th April, fourteen per cent of care homes had already recorded outbreaks. This figure is likely to be much larger- and will increase. In the majority of care homes, the heinous lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) is leaving carers defenceless against contracting the virus from residents, engendering a vicious cycle in which terrified carers may refuse to go to work, exacerbating the staff shortages already present in many care homes, and making it difficult for carers who decide to risk their lives by working to care for stricken residents. In other words, it is chaos.
It is therefore undeniable that the British social care system is facing an unprecedented crisis, and yet, the crisis faced by care homes now does not seem to provoking the same level of national outrage as there was when it became apparent that NHS workers had insufficient access to personal protective equipment, and yet this situation is just as catastrophic.
Like the NHS, the social care system was in crisis long before COVID19 struck: it has been in decline for a number of years, as many of its workers (my own mother among them) will be able to testify. It was only a matter of time before a crisis such as this one was going to expose the cracks in the system. The fact that the government failed to even acknowledge deaths in care homes in its daily death toll is therefore perhaps unsurprising, for it simply is further proof of a persistent inability to adequately support the social care system as it crumbles.
Furthermore, the fact that sufficient personal protective equipment is still not being amply provided to care homes across the country- which surely should be a government priority- is condemning thousands more residents and care workers to contracting the virus. It is another example of an astonishing lack of compassion from the government during the pandemic.
The care workers who toil for long hours, often on abominably low wages, are the ones who hold this system together, and yet it seems as though the government perceives their lives- along with those of the residents- to be dispensable. Although these care workers had the best of intentions when entering this career, many of them are now facing living nightmares, and yet they remain under-paid and underappreciated. As much as I admire and appreciate the NHS and applaud for the NHS workers every Thursday night, it is integral that these care workers are not left out of our thoughts when we #clapforthenhs, because all too often, people do not conflate those working in the social care sector as being “health workers”, when in fact, their roles are equally essential.
It is not just hospitals, but also care homes, which are on the front line of this pandemic. It is care homes which typically collaborate closely with hospitals to ensure the elderly and most vulnerable people within our society are cared for, both inside and outside of hospitals. Without them, the NHS would cease to function. For an industry which is so instrumental, it is perhaps surprising that the majority of the general public remain unaware of the extent to which this crisis had torn through care homes prior to the pandemic.
It therefore goes without saying that the COVID19 pandemic has aggravated the crisis in our social care system. It is having repercussions which will continue to do so. Given the inaction of the Johnson government, it is doubtful that we can depend on them to even begin to resolve the crisis, as pessimistic as this may sound. The roots of this crisis are so entrenched in complex social, economic and political factors which extend beyond the current government that it will be long-term, rather than short-term, solutions which will be the answer.
Having said that, in the short-term Johnson’s government could attempt to stabilise the system as it is, and to invest in increasing the number of people receiving publicly funded social care. Nevertheless, the system needs not just better funding, but also, extensive reforms, although the crisis cannot simply be resolved with these measures alone.
It is also a question of changing public attitudes towards social care, which have long remained ignorant of the sector and its importance within our society, and to encourage a public dialogue about how this crisis affects everyone- not just the residents of care homes and care workers.
Whether we realise this or not, the overwhelming majority of us will, at some point during our lives, have to use the social care system. We may have a relative in a care home, have a friend or relative who works in one, or go into a care home ourselves. What is even more shocking than the crisis which has unfolded is the fact that until the COVID19 pandemic, this woefully neglected system remained fairly low on most of our radars.
This pandemic should not have had to serve as a wake-up call to both the government and the public about the dire straits in which so many care homes find themselves. But it has- and we must seize the opportunity which it is providing to enact reform. When this pandemic is over- whenever that may be- things must not go back to how they were. They cannot, because if they do, it is only a matter of time before this already deeply devalued system truly crumbles for good under the weight of the next public health crisis.
With the end of this pandemic as a starting point, we need to engage with one another across generations- because this concerns the young just as much as it does the old- to work towards educating ourselves on the crisis which has for so long afflicted our social care system.
The thousands of “neighbourhood support groups” which have swiftly sprung up in communities across the UK, providing support to the elderly and the most vulnerable members of these communities, are testament to the ease with which action can be taken quickly. We need to continue treat this crisis with a greater sense of urgency, so that the government will continue to prioritise providing solutions to these problems. If we are willing to help out or own elderly and vulnerable neighbours, why shouldn’t we go one step further and support all elderly and vulnerable people who will most likely have either used or will use the social care system? We need to continue to show the care and compassion which has been on display during the pandemic once it has ended.
We should not have had to already condemn thousands of our grandparents, parents, siblings and spouses to die in the places where they were supposed to be cared for, in part due to a crisis and attitudes which pre-dated COVID19. These are deaths which were, to a great extent, totally preventable, had funding and reforms been provided. Without forgetting this, we must, however, remain optimistic for the future, and hope that the devastating consequences of the deadly intermingling between COVID19 and the crisis-stricken social care system will engender a long-term change in attitudes and encourage the governments- both of the present and of the future- to take action.
A Northern Girl in a Southern World 