{"id":56480,"date":"2021-12-16T15:24:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T15:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armanios.co.uk\/dev\/sia\/?page_id=56480"},"modified":"2021-12-16T15:24:32","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T15:24:32","slug":"peters-story","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/armanios.co.uk\/dev\/sia\/peters-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter’s story"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Peter, aged 60, has been tetraplegic since 1986 and is injured at C5\/6. He has used a live-in personal assistant for over 30 years.<\/p>\n

In the early 1990s he set up his first care agency, and he founded Origin Spinal Injury Care in 2001, which specialises in providing live-in care assistants for those with spinal cord injury.\u00a0 Origin is based in Lancaster and provides care assistants for clients all over the UK, with around 50 – 70 clients at any one time.<\/p>\n

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Peter\u2019s care is funded through the NHS\u2019s Continuing Healthcare package, and he uses personal assistants sourced through his own company, Origin.\u00a0 As both a care user and a care provider, Peter is perhaps uniquely placed to comment on the care crisis.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m all too aware of the problems with recruitment.\u00a0 We provide carers for people for 365 days per year, and also respite care for shorter periods of time.\u00a0 The recruitment activity has dropped off a cliff since late June.<\/p>\n

Speaking as someone who relies on a live-in carer, the fear of being left alone without any care is absolutely terrifying and all-consuming<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s been catastrophic.\u00a0 Recruitment has dwindled dramatically.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got a training course running at the moment with places for 12 people, but we only have two people doing it.\u00a0 We simply don\u2019t have enough staff to cover all the clients we need to help.<\/p>\n

The change started in 2016, but it has been much harder to recruit good carers over the past\u00a0 five years.\u00a0 The combination of Brexit and Covid has had a dramatic effect on social care, and live-in carers in particular.<\/p>\n

At the moment we can\u2019t recruit from Australasia at all, and we can no longer hire people without EU Settlement status.\u00a0 It means our hands are tied. We\u2019re stuck.\u00a0 As a business we can\u2019t take on new clients and we can\u2019t hire new staff.<\/p>\n

There are two things the government should do to help this situation.<\/p>\n