Resources

No More Pips to Squeak

UKHCA took at a stand at the National Adults and Childrens Services Conference, a major conference in Harrogate, with policy makers and Directors of Adult Social Services in attendance, to focus attention on the needs of the independent homecare sector. Launching our personalisation toolkit, which highlights how some authorities are acting perversely in the face of more personalised services, we also launched a statement on the huge cost pressures providers are under with our "No more pips to squeak" publication. [ID 281]

Download No More Pips to Squeak

UKHCA’s presentation to Laing and Buisson 2009 Homecare conference

This document is available to UKHCA members only. Information on how to join UKHCA.

UKHCA was asked to give the following presentation “Is there a future for small homecare providers” at the Laing and Buisson annual homecare conference. UKHCA’s analysis of the challenges facing small providers, particularly from the personalisation agenda, but also the opportunities, may be of interest to members. It includes some tips and advice for smaller homecare businesses on how to survive the challenges of government initiatives and council actions. [ID 280]

Download UKHCA’s presentation to Laing and Buisson 2009 Homecare conference

UKHCA policy planner

This document is available to UKHCA members only. Information on how to join UKHCA.

Keeping up with social care policy and reform can seem overwhelming. UKHCA's own internal policy planner, which aids us in keeping abreast of what is happening across a range of social care issues, as well as how we have or plan to respond to them, is now being made available to members. It touches on issues as wideranging as migration to pandemic 'flu to protection of vulnerable adults and will be updated on a bi-monthly basis as new issues come to the fore or major initiatives are announced. It won't reflect every single initiative or issue affecting homecare, but it hopefully will provide members of a helpful overview on some of the major issues and UKHCA positions. [ID 265]

Download UKHCA policy planner

UKHCA Position Statement: PHV licensing should not extend to care workers’ cars

UKHCA is campaigning for Department for Transport guidance to make it clear that care workers in England are exempt from licensing their vehicles as private hire vehicles (PHVs), if they transport users under a wider package of homecare. Our new Position Statement argues that service users are adequately protected if employers carry out regular checks to ensure that care workers’ cars are properly taxed and insured, and PHV licensing should be restricted to specialised transport services. [ID 236]

Download UKHCA Position Statement: PHV licensing should not extend to care workers’ cars

The personalisation agenda: Threats and opportunities for domiciliary care providers

This document is available to UKHCA members only. Information on how to join UKHCA.

A key issue for homecare providers is how the introduction of the personalisation agenda will affect their businesses and services.

The challenges for providers were identified in the introductory article by Lucianne Sawyer CBE in the September edition of Homecarer.  Her longer companion article “The personalisation agenda: Threats and opportunities for domiciliary care providers” published by the Journal for Care Services Management discusses the issues in greater depth, and is available free for UKHCA members.  

The article is intended to be a discussion paper, and the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of UKHCA or the UKHCA Board. [ID 231]

Download The personalisation agenda: Threats and opportunities for domiciliary care providers

UKHCA's Manifesto for Sustainable Homecare

UKHCA launches "From Rhetoric to Reality, A Manifesto for Sustainable Homecare" on Wednesday, 22nd October 2008. The manifesto sets out the key actions which local and central government and homecare providers need to take to ensure that high quality homecare continues to be delivered in the future. Included in the 18 recommendations is a call for councils to stop damaging the sector by inappropriate cost-savings and for central government to act on the Low Pay Commission's repeated request to scrutinise how councils' commissioning practice damages careworker pay. The launch of the manifesto coincides with the opening of the 2008 conference by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS). [ID 215]

Download UKHCA's Manifesto for Sustainable Homecare

Local Action Pack

This document is available to UKHCA members only. Information on how to join UKHCA.

Our Local Action Pack will provide members with ideas on how to influence local councils and MPs to secure a better deal for the sector and raise the profile of homecare locally. The pack contains information on lobbying local politicians, facts and figures on homecare, and suggestions for targeting new customers. [ID 164]

Download Local Action Pack

Open Letters to Ministers in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Following the appointment of new ministers for health and social care in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, UKHCA chair Mike Padgham has written to Edwina Hart AM, the new Minister for Health and Social Services in Wales, Michael McGimpsey MLA, the new Minister for Health in Northern Ireland, and Nicola Sturgeon MSP, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing in Scotland.

UKHCA has welcomed each of the ministers to their new roles, and has underlined the importance of homecare in each country. Each letter highlights the impact of resource constraints on the services that people receive at home and the capacity of the independent and voluntary homecare sector to deliver. UKHCA has called on the ministers to make social care, and in particular homecare, a priority for funding.

UKHCA also wrote to the new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown upon his appointment. [ID 146]

Available downloadable versions:

• Letter to Edwina Hart AM, Wales, Minister for Health and Social Services
• MLA Health Minister">Letter to Michael McGimpsey MLA, Northern Ireland, Health Minister
• Letter to Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Scotland, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing

New Code of Practice for UK's Homecare Providers

Regulation has been a fundamental part of improving home-based care for some of the most vulnerable people in society. However, UKHCA's Code of Practice enables our member organisations to operate above the minimum requirements enforceable by regulators. [ID 131]

Download New Code of Practice for UK's Homecare Providers

Improving the Status of Services and the Workforce in Social Care

A paper for the Commission for Social Care Inspection by Lesley Rimmer, Chief Executive [ID 122]

Download Improving the Status of Services and the Workforce in Social Care

Social care - the e-agenda (Homecarer May 2005)

This document is available to UKHCA members only. Information on how to join UKHCA.

You may have read about the national plan for electronic health records (NPfIT), largely because the media have picked up criticisms of predicted costs, and some medics' views that the system won't work because they have not been properly involved in consultations. You may also have heard about the Single Assessment Process - or SAP as it is more conventionally known. [ID 88]

Download Social care - the e-agenda (Homecarer May 2005)