UKHCA Position Statements

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.

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).

UKHCA Position Statement: A Fair Price for Care

UKHCA sets-out the vital importance of homecare organisations receiving a fair price for the services they provide. In the first of our UKHCA Position Statements, we examine the background to the current state of the market and provide recommendations to local authority commissioners on adequate payment for the care they purchase.

UKHCA Position Statement: Managing working time in live-in care

UKHCA believes that homecare workers providing "live-in" care services undertake their role on an "unmeasured work" basis for the purposes of the Working Time Regulations 1998 and the National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999.

UKHCA Position Statement: Short Care Episodes

In our second UKHCA Position Statement, we highlight the dangers of using 15-minute visits to provide personal care to increasingly dependent service users. In recommendations to local authority commissioners we state that short visits should only be used for monitoring and prompting activities and highlight the demotivating nature of these visits on service users and their careworkers.