Government ignoring key advice on social care leaves woman suicidal

A committee tasked with advising the government on the crisis in social care say it has worsened and their recommendations have been ignored in their annual report issued this week. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) who are an independent public body that advises the government on migration issues reported that there are around 70,000 more vacancies in social care now than before the pandemic (an overall vacancy rate of 11.1%) and they say much of this is down to the ending of free movement due to Brexit. What is more, according to the report the situation is getting worse and despite MAC handing the government the report which they commissioned eight months ago, so far none of their recommendations have been responded to by any minister.

According to the Spinal Injuries Association, who collaborated closely with MAC to represent those people who recruit and use carers from overseas, many are still struggling to access the care they need which is always much harder at Christmas. For 51-year-old Lynda Yu finding the right care has become a matter of life or death.

Lynda has a spinal cord injury following a road accident in 2004 which has left her paralysed in both the upper and lower body and she is fully dependent on the care she receives 24/7. Such are her complex care needs Lynda would end up in A&E without it. Lynda is struggling to find anyone who can meet her care requirements and has even considered taking her own life because of it.

“I need qualified carers or life isn’t worth living. I know I should stay alive and fight it but how can you fight it if you don’t have anything to fight with?”

When she couldn’t access the care she needed her partner Michel devotedly supplied 24/7 care to her, but the stress on him has become intolerable. As Lynda’s full-time carer, Michal has not had a single day off work for the past seven years. It takes him around three – four hours just to get Lynda ready for the day, which includes carrying her from bed to shower chair and undertaking her bowel management routine.

“My partner can no longer cope. He is going to have a breakdown if I don’t do something, so I have looked at care outside. My mum is sick, and I don’t have extended family close by, but he can’t manage anymore mentally. I can’t go without care for one day as If my catheter bag isn’t emptied, I suffer from something called autonomic dysreflexia which could be fatal.”

Every care agency she has contacted has told Lynda a similar story; that they’re short on carers and cannot take on any new assignments, provide respite cover or offer regular care. They say it’s because they can’t recruit enough carers and blame the new immigration rules. Those carers Lynda can find privately are charging her way too much and she simply cannot afford the costs.

“The government must allow overseas carers to come and work in the UK again so they can care for and support people like me to lead a fulfilled life. Care, and especially intimate personal care, is a difficult job. It takes a special kind of person to do it well.”

In July 2021, the government commissioned MAC to ‘undertake an independent review of adult social care, and the impact the ending freedom of movement has had on the sector’. It contained a total of 19 recommendations relating to pay and conditions and immigration policy for social care, that would help to ease the burden on employers and migrants alike which have so far been ignored. In this week’s annual report MAC expressed its disappointment stressing that the cost-of-living crisis is particularly severe for social care workers, given that their pay remains tied to insufficient government funding and that they’re generally not well compensated for their fuel costs.

Following recent announcements by the Chancellor in his autumn statement for increased funding available for the social care sector MAC stated in their report:

“The conditions now faced by the social care sector are unsustainable. Despite calls from the Health and Social Care Select Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, the NHS Confederation, Care England and numerous other organisations alongside the MAC, the Government appears to have no ambitions to raise pay in a material and properly funded way.”

For Lynda the stress of finding appropriate care has become overwhelming: “It keeps me awake at night and I have to rely on sleeping pills which I have been on for three years. How am I supposed to live this life when I can’t afford to get the care I need? People don’t realise how hard it is to access decent care and the danger if you don’t receive any help.”

Spinal Injuries Association supports many like Lynda in their battle to access the care they need.

CEO Nik Hartley OBE said:

“It’s a source of deep frustration and disappointment that the government still hasn’t responded to the MAC report on the impact of the ending of free movement on the care sector. Our engagement with MAC was crucial in helping to shine a light on cases like Lynda’s and ensuring MAC understood about spinal cord injury and the critical importance to SCI people of being able to use skilled care workers irrespective of their country of origin. We hope the MAC annual report helps to prompt the government to do so as a matter of priority.”

Lynda Yu is desperate for change:

“Sometimes I think what am I going to do, you can’t make a loved one care for you 24/7 without a break. I do have to recruit but if I can’t then I have even considered ending my own life, I know I have been given a chance to live again after the accident, but every day I worry about it. How can I tell my eight-year-old niece that I can’t visit her because I have no carer to help me?”