The real scandal of Panorama’s home care investigation
The real scandal of Panorama’s home care investigation
By Paul Roberts
www.caringforyourbusiness.co.uk
Panorama’s special on ‘Britain’s Homecare Scandal’ (BBC1 April 10 2009) was hardly a shining example of investigative journalism.
The undercover reporters took the easy route to producing a ‘shock-horror’ condemnation of the failings in home care.
The biggest scandal is how Panorama failed to get to the root of the problems in home care – and failed to expose the real ‘villains’.
Most of us would have been shocked, disappointed and angered at the lack of care shown to the elderly featured in the programme.
Of course, it was unacceptable. And of course, Panorama was right to bring the catalogue of care errors to the attention of the British public.
Sending ‘care-workers’ undercover to reveal the extent of the problems was probably the only way to get irrefutable proof of the appalling state of care in these cases.
But, Panorama made no effort to establish the sequence of events that led to the people featured in the programme receiving poor home care.
And ‘Britain’s Homecare Scandal’ made no reference to the hundreds of thousands of pensioners who receive good home care seven days a week.
Low pay for care workers was frequently mentioned in the programme. But scant regard was given to the circumstances that turned home care into a low pay industry.
Panorama knows that the hourly cost of council-run services is about £22.30. It also knows that councils keep the average rate paid to independent and voluntary sector providers at just £12.30.
Therein lies the major cause of poor home care services and the undercover investigation team chose to ignore the implications.
Local authorities are using minute billing and ‘e-auctions’ to drive down prices. But again, Panorama made no attempt to look at this in any detail.
Many home care firms struggling to survive the recession are forced to ‘bid low’ to avoid going out of business and sacking thousands of care workers.
The United Kingdom Home Care Association (UKHCA) say there is ‘unhelpful buck passing between local and central government about where responsibility for the issue rests. Local authorities say they have insufficient funds to meet providers’ real costs and central government say that fee levels are a local responsibility’.
Was there any mention of this in the Panorama special? No.
When local authorities chose to tell the undercover team that they did not wish to comment on a particular matter, Panorama let them get away with it.
There was no attempt to speak to the banks about how they fund home care – and how a loan is often linked to the winning of local authority contracts.
They chose the easy way instead – knocking the providers and giving care workers a bad name (even though Panorama said the workers ‘were in no way responsible’ for the chaos portrayed).
No doubt the Panorama team and the BBC will be congratulating themselves on a ‘job well done’. They will now walk away from it all, and probably put themselves forward for some kind of award.
The programme ended with the famous words: ‘Something has to be done to put this right’. Panorama failed to talk to the very people who can do something.
It’s okay to give a leading Care Commission official in Scotland a tough interview about standards in home care.
But where were the interviews with Government ministers, the head of the Care Quality Commission and local government chiefs who have to face up to the problems facing home care.
One social services leader was questioned – but Panorama failed to ask her what role her authority had played in the fiasco.
The UKHCA is the professional association for more than 1,670 domiciliary care providers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
It campaigns tirelessly for improvements in the care industry and for better pay for its workers. No attempt was made to speak to any of its leaders.
‘Britain’s Homecare Scandal’ has done more harm than good because of its shoddy investigative work.
Its dramatic content will have shocked a nation – and damaged the reputation of many good firms and careworkers who are the backbone of this industry.
Those on the front line – the careworkers – will face abuse from people who have been given a one-sided look at the worst aspects of the industry.
So, in congratulating yourselves Panorama, feel for those who will be left to pick up the pieces of your handiwork.
Paul Roberts
www.caringforyourbusiness.co.uk
Roberts Consultants, specialists in developing home care businesses
April 12th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Of course, the Panorama programme made no reference to the hundreds of thousands of pensioners who receive good home care seven days a week. That wasn’t the purpose of the programme – it was called “Britain’s Homecare Scandal”, so it was quite clear from the outset what the programme would be looking at. Nor was the programme intended to deal only with pensioners. Homecare can be provided to young and old.
I found it quite clearly demonstrated that the ‘e-auctions’ were a major contributory factor. And the £22.30 v. £12.30 issue was also clear.
The problem of low pay for the care workers is not a new issue – they have been paid absolutely basic minimum wage for years now, long before the recent banking crisis set in.
But if 4 hours training – and no supervision – is acceptable so as to save the provider even more money, while putting the person receiving ‘care’ at enormous risk, then it is a sad reflection on the care industry. Where were the interviews with the home care providers? Many rich fat cats amongst them too. Administrative errors? Slipped off the computer? Pull the other leg, please!
April 12th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Between us we must all keep promoting the good work that is being done but we must also not lose sight of the fact that there are still some agencies out there who are terrible (regardless of how much they are paid and sometimes its not even because of price) and I speak from every angle of experience when I say that if people cannot run their care businesses efficiently and in the best interest of their clients – then they should not run them……there are no excuses for poor practice. I started as a care worker, became management and started my own care agency with a colleague at the age of 27 because I had seen too much poor practice. I now spend my time as a dignity champion – my writing – my consultancy work – my continued self development in terms of qualifications and my interviews and occasionally I even run workshops for procurement teams …….I keep chipping away at as many providers of care services and other people within the field in the belief that as a team – those of us who care enough to bother, will make a difference. And there are more of us that want to do an excellent job than there are those who do a terrible one – and that is a great stride since I first came into this sector some 25 years ago.
I share a great deal of your sentiment about the programme.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 4:46 pm
This article brings out some good points and I realize that Panorama will always take a slightly biased view. They have done this many times before. However one thing does come out of the program and something that we all should be ashamed of. As a nation we do not care for the most vulnerable elderly people that are in our society as well as we should.
If it costs more we should pay it. If it needs more training and better management it should be provided. There should be no excuses.
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