Equality and Human Rights Commission join debate about elderly care
The Equality and Human Rights Commission
, the commissioner responsible for the report, told
The findings represent the latest scandal to hit care for elderly people in England. A series of damning inquiries by inspectors highlighted the failure of NHS hospitals to treat older patients with dignity, leaving them dehydrated and malnourished. The 115-page report estimated that half of the 500,000 people receiving home help with tasks such as washing, dressing and cooking were satisfied with the quality of their support. But “significant shortcomings” in the way councils commissioned services from private care firms and nursing agencies led to breaches of basic human rights for “hundreds of thousands” of frail pensioners, it said. The report, which gathered evidence from 1,254 individuals, local authorities, care providers and other groups in England, found:
Lady Greengross condemned “disgusting” examples of age discrimination in the way councils organised care for vulnerable elderly people. While young disabled adults were often taken out of their homes on trips, the elderly were almost always left for hours alone at home, she said. “We are talking about a quarter of a million people who are getting either very poor or poor care. Some of them are too frightened to complain. Some of them wouldn’t know how to.” Lady Greengross warned that too often care workers were restricted by a “task-oriented” system, in which they are allocated no more than 15 minutes for a visit. This meant many pensioners were being deprived of “basic social interaction”. The commission called for a loophole in the Human Rights Act to be closed to require councils to agree human rights clauses in contracts with groups providing care workers.
Meanwhile many examples including the cases of Jimmy Savile and Winterbourne care home illustrate the continuing risks to children and vulnerable adults. There is still a need for robust safeguarding approaches. Employers, regulators, vocational training providers, recruitment agencies and voluntary group leaders all need to understand their changing responsibilities and liabilities.
Safeguarding Matters is led by policy and communication specialists who are tracking the changes to legislation. We offer impact assessments, best practice advice and independent consultancy about the changing world of safeguarding for organisations in different sectors. We also run open briefing events about the changes and promote training provided by other safeguarding specialists.
On this site we are tracking a number of the related topics in order to provide a strategic overview for readers. These include criminal record disclosure changes, police database development, changes to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, the Education Bill, the Health and Social Care Bill, and the changing roles of regulators measures.
