Liverpool plans more home-based care for older people

Liverpool City Council has published plans to revitalise its
home-care service to help more older people live independently in
their own homes, writes Haroon
Ashraf.

The council said it would create a team of 150 care workers who
would provide short-term intensive care for older people trying to
recover their independence after an illness.

It would also establish a 400 member, community-based team who
would provide practical services such as shopping, cooking, and
cleaning.

“These plans will give [the team of] home care workers a real
opportunity to become professionally qualified with a commensurate
increase in pay,” said the council’s executive member
for social care Councillor Flo Clucas.

Clucas said the remaining 400 care workers would get the same pay
as before but the council would want them to expand their
roles.

The proposals, which will boost the capacity of the service by 20%
over the next 10 years, will allow people who currently use the
service to keep their current care workers.

UNISON’s branch secretary in Liverpool Angela Blundell said,
“I am glad they have come to a decision—this has been
going on for 5 years. But we have got this close before and
proposals have been pulled.

“The grey area is contracts for staff. The service has
changed over the years. They do a lot of jobs now that
professionals, such as districts nurses used to do.”

Clucas dismissed UNISON’s charge and said care workers had
told her they wanted these changes.