“Social care reform cannot come soon enough”

Sioux Vosper and Joseph Healy look at the Covid Inquiry Module 6 Report.

The long-awaited Covid Inquiry Report on the massacre in the care homes dropped two weeks ago. Many of the contents were no surprise to those of us who have been following the Inquiry and the horrific evidence given to it over the last few years of a government seemingly wedded to a combination of corruption, eugenics and incompetence.

Nowhere has this been more evident than in the tragic fate of the social care sector and its hapless service users and staff, most notably in the care homes. The much vaunted ‘ring of steel around the care homes’ claimed by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary at the time, was shown to be completely fictitious in the report.

Even worse, it showed how untested patients from hospitals had been dumped in care homes, leading to a wave of death among both residents and staff. It also showed many staff battling heroically to save residents equipped only with bin bags and homemade masks as there was no PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), all that there was having been redirected to the NHS. At no time was the often quoted description of social care as ‘the Cinderella Service’ more obvious, as staff and residents were sacrificed on the twin altars of incompetence and corruption.

The Module 6 recommendations have no accountability and are weak, not mentioning ethnic minorities or disabled people. The death rates among these two groups were disproportionately high, particularly among disabled people living in residential care, for example, people living with learning difficulties, where Do Not Resuscitate orders were handed out like confetti, often by local GPs contacted by the care homes.

Austerity and privatisation meant we were woefully unprepared for a pandemic. Protecting adult social care was an afterthought. Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson and Simon Stevens, having no medical knowledge, took the decision to discharge untested patients into care homes to free up hospital beds. Months later, Hancock’s claim that he’d put a protective ring around the care homes protecting our most vulnerable people in society proved to be untrue Action taken by all three devolved governments and the UK government to protect workers and care users came too late. There were over 43,000 deaths recorded in the social care sector involving Covid 19 between March 2020 and July 2022.

Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK has a petition to remove Hancock from the Privy Council. Blanket DNACPRs (Do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation) were applied during the pandemic, and although in the body of this report it says they shouldn’t be applied to groups and should be person-specific, there’s no actual recommendation on this.

Mandatory end of life care training is a positive recommendation. So is a recommendation for a workforce register for adult social care workers, but sadly this is only voluntary.

Social care reform cannot come soon enough. We can’t wait for more reports or another election. It needs the same care and protection as the NHS. The report says adult social care should be considered as national “critical infrastructure“. All four governments have six months to respond to the eight recommendations.

In a recent Radio 4 discussion on the social care sector and the pandemic, a leading spokesperson for local government was asked if things had improved since the period covered in the report and replied that they were possibly worse. Many care homes and residential settings still have no proper ventilation and very few staff are issued with proper PPE.

Boris Johnson was quoted as saying of older people at the height of the pandemic “Well, they’ve had a good innings.” That still seems to be the prevalent attitude in many social care settings. The clear evidence of eugenics displayed in this history is something that has seeped into the health and social care sector in the years since.  This Report from the Inquiry shines a light on one of the darkest episodes in the pandemic, but a lot more needs to be done.

Sioux Vosper is a member of Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK. She and Joseph Healy are both members of the Covid Action UK Steering Committee.

Image: “Matt Hancock holds press conference at No10 Downing Street” by UK Prime Minister is licensed under CC BY 2.0.