A press release from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), dated 27/07/2017, has alerted us to the SCIE’s appointment of a new Chair, Paul Burstow .
Burstow was a Liberal Democrat MP (1997 to 2015), and served as Minister of State at the Department of Health (2010 to 2012) with responsibility for care services.
In 2013, Burstow was appointed Chair of The Commission on Residential Care (CORC), which was sponsored by the think-tank Demos.
The Commission was directed ‘to explore the future of residential care in its broadest sense – from care homes to extra care villages and supported living, for older and disabled people’ and its final report in 2014 , sometimes referred to as the CORC Report, suggested how government might build ‘a housing with care sector fit for the twenty-first century’. Given its agenda, Rescare took a particular interest in the Commission and the Report.
If nothing else, take a look at the summary of recommendations towards the end of the report. One conspicuous recommendation was that: the terms ‘residential care’ and ‘care home’ should no longer be used in government policy and guidance; they should be replaced with the sector-wide term ‘housing with care’ to encapsulate all forms of care delivered in specialist housing settings. The report also made recommendations about how the CQC should undertake the tasks inspection and regulator – which remain valid in view of ongoing ‘difficulties’ at the CQC.
In assuming his new role at the SCIE, Burstow has made an introductory statement on his blog, entitled Offering solutions for a system at ‘tipping point’. This starts: “The Care Quality Commission says our fragile social care system is ‘approaching a tipping point’. The signs and symptoms of a system running hot have pushed social care up news and political agendas. Despite this, understanding of social care remains a mile wide and an inch deep. Social care is often reduced to little more than caricature: either shocking cases of abuse or a debate about how much public money is needed and how the bill should be split between taxpayer and individuals. These are important questions but there is so much more to social care…”
We hope to report back to our readers on Burstow’s impact at the SCIE.