Report shows older people are missing out on valuable social work
Research published by the University of Bristol has exposed features that are preventing older people from receiving quality social workers.
The findings, which were published on 27th November by a team of academics, highlight factors including ageism, lack of investment and pressured services are stopping patients from getting access to valuable carers when they need them most.
Within the research, experts discovered that the 11.4% staff vacancy rate within the social care sector and lack of services was also impacting older people’s ability to receive a care worker. In addition, complex processes including multiple form filling and difficulties accessing NHS records were found to need significant improvement.
Against this backdrop, research displayed that although older people can often to passed onto different carers, leading to a poorer experience.
Case studies involved in the research also highlighted the substantial lack of access in rural areas. One research participant had to go into a care home because there was no care available in her own home. Another got stuck in a care home because there was no social worker to arrange for her to get back to her own home.
‘Social workers have a central role in ensuring older people are able to access the social care they may be legally entitled to. And this research shows the transformative potential of social work,’ said Dr Denise Tanner, associate professor of social work at the University of Birmingham. ‘However, unlike children or adults with a learning disability, most older people won’t see a social worker but rather an experienced worker who has not undertaken the same level of training.’
Dr Tanner added: ‘At a time when social care is under increasing pressure with nearly half a million adults waiting for an assessment, it is essential to consider how we can enable older people, carers and families to access a social worker at the right time.’
Amidst drawing attention to the tragic fact that older people aren’t receiving sufficient care and the harrowing state of the social care sector, the report, which is titled The Social worth with Older People also puts forward key policy recommendations to improve this.
These include:
- Resource social work and social care appropriately, and co-produce solutions to challenges with older people
- Ensure that social work is named and included in policy debates as a central part of social care and integrated services with the NHS
- Provide clear information and advice about social care and social work
- Ensure access to social workers when they are the right person at the right time in the right place
- Enable older people, carers and family to access social work advice early to prevent issues, for example by deploying social workers in local authority ‘first point of contact’ services
- Reduce barriers to social workers engaging in work that is most valued by older people and their families
- Grow the social work workforce that older people need
Dr Tanner said: ‘In order to provide the level of support for older people that is needed in this country we require enough social workers to be trained, existing social workers to be supported and retained, and social workers to be deployed thoughtfully, without time wasting barriers to their work. It took five years for social workers in one of the local authority areas we studied to get access to the NHS system but there still isn’t a shared record.
‘Maintaining continuity of social workers also needs to be taken out of the ‘too hard to do’ pile because our research has shown that this is fundamental to a good experience of social work. It is also vital that older people, carers, families, and NHS colleagues understand what social workers offer so that they can benefit from the unique knowledge and skills that social workers bring.’
Image: Matteo Vistocco
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