HUMANITY ON SCREEN

By Grace Thompson

In the past few weeks, we have seen our political leaders on television more than ever before. Regular press briefings, updates to the House of Commons and more breakfast appearances and interviews than the biggest political junkie could wish for.

Even scientists have not been spared the media scrutiny of their personality antics. They have also been thrown into the public gaze in a way that is probably unusual and perhaps even uncomfortable for them. In past years, the face of the Chief Medical Officer may never have been known to the public. This year, we can all recognise him just by sight. The chirpiness of Sir Simon Stevens, the eloquence of Patrick Vallance the honest emotion of Jonathan Van-Tam are all now familiar traits.

Perhaps in a time where we have fewer interactions with our support networks and other people in general, it is somehow comforting to relate, in some way, to the frequent personalities on our screens, even if those methods of relating aren’t always positive! Just as our closest friends and family members get on our nerves from time to time, so we have our favourite political and authority figures who we admire or the ones we may even love to laugh at. 

Surely there is no coincidence that in a year that has caused political advisers and super-forecasters to catch the attention of the media like never before, we have also seen the return of the iconic Spitting Image show, gobbling up new material in their hands with greed. 

In what now seems like an age ago, Theresa May defied past prime ministerial trends by pushing away the show glitzy, cozy-up-to-me PM style of Cameron and Blair. The limelight wasn’t natural to her, so heading up the history-making negotiations of a country leaving the European Union probably wasn’t the best match. Boris Johnson, on the other hand, loves the limelight but probably didn’t bargain for having quite as much airtime as he has had to experience in the past few months, and with very little good news to deliver. 

Trust in our leaders currently requires frequent interaction, even if only virtual, but it requires even more than that. Research is being carried out as to why it seems that many female leaders of countries experiencing Covid have handled the pandemic particularly well. Fierce critics of Nicola Sturgeon, for example, suddenly see a new side to her and praise her sensible decisions and incisive timing. Jacinda Adern sees New Zealand successfully drop to 0 recorded cases and ‘does a little dance’ in her living room to celebrate.  

I don’t think anyone who heard Matt Hancock’s voice shake as he spoke of losing his step-grandfather to Covid could doubt his determination to fight it. Authority can be better followed when those in authority are also seen to be as human as the rest of us. Our leaders, after all, are not immortals in ivory towers, they are flesh and blood who can be infected with viruses as easily as the next person and who can love and lose as we all do. So perhaps, in a time when the best and worst of our humanity is entangling simultaneously, what we need is to see the authentic human side of our leaders on the screen.

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Grace Thompson

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REVAMPING ADULT SOCIAL CARE

BUILD, BUILD, BUILD – FOR WHO?

REVAMPING ADULT SOCIAL CARE

By Grace Thompson

From the Government’s difficulty supporting care homes during the peak of cases adequately, to testing shortages to the wraparound care that many adults will now need as a result of having had severe Covid, adult social care has rarely been more prominently in view than it has been during the current crisis.

I can still clearly remember a conversation I had with a portfolio holder for adult social care in my hometown several years ago. He told me that the future of adult social care in the UK simply wasn’t sustainable if it carried on in its current structure. It was the immediate aftermath of the austerity years, and funding in all areas was scarce. His opinion was that the future of adult social care lay in a balance between having care homes for those who really needed them, and fighting for those who wanted to stay at home to have in-home care provided by an increased number of well-funded community nurse teams.

I have been reflecting on this conversation in recent weeks and I see that his words were true. Adult social care has barely had time to breathe from the austerity years before being swamped under the raging waters of Covid. But what happens next? Structures must be rebuilt and revamped before the next health crisis comes along. This time, we cannot do nothing. It will certainly take more than producing a new green badge and flashing it around on politicians’ lapels during BBC Breakfast interviews.

Live-in healthcare is associated with better mental health outcomes, reduced hospital ‘bed-blocking’ and less physical falls. The last two benefits save the NHS millions a year in hip operations and overnight hospital stays. On a human level, live-in healthcare also means that families and neighbourhoods can stay together longer and enjoy some of the last years they may have together.

For some, obviously, there will come a time when living at home is no longer an option. For those for whom it is an option, however, we should be enabling this as much as possible, particularly as we know that the population is living longer. By 2050, the number of adults aged 60 or over will double. A strong package of support would need to be in place in our country to help with the additional costs of community nursing and occupational adjustments to houses. We already know that adapting a house for an older person to stay at home costs around £6,000, compared with a cost per year of about £26,000 for residential care.

A shift in our world’s usual patterns has caused positive change already. Workplaces are seeing productivity improvement from being more flexible with their employees and increased home working. Air pollution improved in many cities as a result of less traffic on the roads. Whilst we abhor the cause of these changes, we can embrace them if the changes themselves lead to our world being a better place, not only for our children, but also for our elderly and physically vulnerable.

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Read more articles by Grace Thompson

BUILD, BUILD, BUILD – FOR WHO?

HUMANITY ON SCREEN

Further Reading Recommended by Grace

Housing in Later Life by Age UK

Choosing between staying at home or moving by PMC

BUILD, BUILD, BUILD – FOR WHO?

By Grace Thompson

Boris’ has unveiled a new promise of ‘build, build, build’. Anyone who can recall Blair’s mantra of ‘education, education, education’ will know that the three-word slogan isn’t a new thing, and such slogans are often seen to be the magic recipe for change. It just didn’t seem to work with ‘Brexit means Brexit’ or ‘strong and stable’.

The stability of Boris Johnson’s ‘New Deal’ is in question, particularly for those in society who arguably need a ‘New Deal’ the most – the homeless. The £12bn for affordable homes is commendable, as are various other home-building measures outlined in the plans. None of them, however, seem to directly equate to housing those without a home, especially those who sleep rough or sofa surf from one house to the next. People staying in emergency accommodation aren’t usually at the stage of looking for affordable housing immediately. Nor are discounts for first time buyers usually relevant either. At the point of emergency, many simply want a secure roof over their head.

One positive aspect to come out of the Government’s plans is the use of £400m for 24,000 homes (the Brownfield Land Fund) at the discretion of the 7 regions it has been given to. Greater regional power is perhaps the hidden key to fighting homelessness in the future. Just as we are now tackling COVID-19 by imposing local lockdowns and concentrating on hotspots, we can fight homelessness by spotting patterns and drawing links in areas and demographics. Rather than labelling one root generic cause for homelessness, there will sometimes be different causes in different towns, cities, regions and countries. The introduction of City Mayors in the UK has done wonders for more direct oversight over regional problems. The ability is there to target resource on issues that may look very different in Greater Manchester, for example, than they do in West Yorkshire. Perhaps these powers will even be strengthened in the future.

To pretend we are not in a very difficult financial position as a country is unrealistic. As tens of thousands of people lose jobs, the need for a stronger welfare net is imperative and the risk of homelessness will undoubtedly rise.

Across the pond, Australia is already working innovatively, despite the pandemic, to begin to eradicate homelessness. In a Guardian article from June 2020 it is reported that New South Wales, for example, has already put up $36 million to secure homes from the private rental market, to try and get people out of the insecure hotel accommodation they were in previously.

Perhaps now is the time for homelessness policy in the UK to receive a creative boost. Housing First initiatives across the UK have been broadly successful, so perhaps it is time to think how to turn them from an experiment to a policy norm? Although this is definitely not the holistic solution to homelessness, we have to start somewhere. Though I would respectfully suggest that pithy slogans are not the starting point!

Grace Thompson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-h-thompson