The government has admitted plans to cut its promised investment in the social care workforce by half, down to £250 million from the £500 million pledged when the social care white paper was published in 2021. Widely condemned by social care leaders, the move comes in spite of the 165,000 staff vacancies across the sector. …
Nearly 400 former football and rugby professionals were due to file legal claims on Tuesday 5 April for brain injuries that have resulted in cases of young onset dementia. Included among the 378 claimants are 100 former rugby league players, 40 former rugby union players and 14 former footballers, who allege that the games’ governing…
Arts charity Living Words is running CPD-accredited foundation courses for professional carers and nursing staff. The charity’s Listen Out Loud Foundation Course is an online course designed to teach skills in effective communication with people with dementia using the Listen Out Loud methodology. There are six 90-minute sessions designed to fit into care staff’s busy…
A new BBC Radio 4 series is exploring the personal stories of people living with rare forms of dementia, including frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. In the five-part series, Dementia: Unexpected Stories of the Mind, which starts on Monday April 10 and airs at 1.45pm every day next week, neurologist Dr Jules Montague…
Fairy tale: Panto season was extended at a Dorset dementia care home as residents and staff staged their own version of Beauty and the Beast. Weeks of rehearsals, making props and sourcing costumes culminated in the performance at Colten Care’s Fernhill home in Longham. Resident Patrick Ryan is pictured (right) with fellow cast members, who…
New data from the Health and Social Care Workforce Study conducted by King’s College London finds that 58.1% of workers reported feeling overwhelmed by increasing pressures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Phase 6 of the workforce survey, presenting results from 1,395 respondents during the period 25 November 2022 – 13 January 2023, found that social…
The chancellor’s Spring Budget on March 15 got a mixed reaction from the care sector with a welcome for measures that supported care workers in employment coupled with a sense that more should have been done. The National Care Forum (NCF), representing not-for-profit providers, said that better funding for childcare and an extension to the…
“Sharing Joy”, a theatre show for people living with life-shortening conditions like dementia, is touring again in care homes, day services, hospices and hospitals in June and July. Music, dance, masks, nostalgia and laughter are all part of the show run by Vamos Theatre, and everyone is encouraged to take part and enjoy themselves. Among…
At a House of Lords event hosted by Lord Best, three new resources on Extra Care housing and dementia have been published as part of the DemECH project, run by the University of Worcester’s Association for Dementia Studies. Lord Best, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) “Housing for people with dementia” inquiry, oversaw the…
Nutrition and Hydration Week (March 13-19) has seen some care homes seize the opportunity to promote a good diet for their residents, with both Nellsar and Royal Star & Garter being among the care home groups taking part. At Nellsar, a group of 13 care homes in the south-east of England, a week-long campaign encouraged…