No-one envisaged or wanted the start to 2021 we're all going through. Far from improvement, things have got a lot worse, we're back in lockdown and we're told to expect things to get worse before they get better. All this in the face of rolling out vaccines. It's clear no-one can accurately predict what's going to happen next and I doubt we would believe anyone who says they can anyway.
In the meantime, the predicament for carers and their families are not getting any easier and from Carers First group video calls, organised by Borders Carers Centre, we know that many carers are at breaking point as the result of lack of respite and the cumulative effect isolation is having on the 'cared for'. This is why BCC, on behalf of all carers in the Borders, ourselves, representing Teviot Day Service, and local Councillors have continued to lobby Scottish Borders Council officials to provide some form of services to alleviate the pressure, particularly on carers. As you probably know, our view is that this should have been in place months ago and the planning should have been done or at least started mid-2020.
Families in Hawick (and presumably elsewhere) received this communication earlier this month.
My, and others', initial reaction on receiving this was not positive for a number of reasons. It lacks detail, clarity and timescales. In other words, it tells you absolutely nothing. It has to be one of the poorest examples of communication I've seen. Worse still, it states '....we require to move to implementing emergency plans for operating in a pandemic.' It is dated 7 January and one wonders if the author has been in a time warp? We've been in a pandemic since March 2020 so why have the emergency plans not been conceived and acted upon some time ago? The letter also suggests that changes to individual care may take place but there is no indication of any form of consultation, contact or timescale. Consultation and appropriate communication are key aspects of the lobbying work BCC, TDS Support Group and other representative groups have been consistently stating must improve, not least because these are statutory requirements. Clearly there are SBC officials to whom this message is still not getting through. Quite simply, a communication like this is not good enough and can't be accepted without highlighting its flaws.
Aside from this, there are some glimmers of light. We are aware that some hours of respite have been offered to carers in some circumstances, long overdue but very much welcomed. This morning, we were represented on a group video call chaired by Robert McCulloch-Graham in the first stage of formalising a Carers Workstream which will hopefully be able to feed into and influence the Borders Health and Social Care Partnership's Strategic Planning Group. The formation of the Carers Workstream has long since been a necessity that BCC have lobbied for and it has representation from carers, BCC, Social Work and hopefully other relevant front line workers, the idea being to feed in the needs and views of carers and the reality of the 'coal face' directly to the senior level decision making process. Far too long have we endured uni-directional, top down decisions without any 360 degree feedback loop and that has resulted in complete disconnect between decisions being made by the Integration Joint Board/Strategic Planning Group and what is actually needed or is workable in practice. The formation of this Carers Workstream is a small but positive step, though very early days yet.
Hopefully by the next update, signficantly greater numbers of people will have been vaccinated and we will be in an improving situation. Until then, stay safe and well.
