Guardian opinions
‘Cheap foreign labour’ – this is how Keir Starmer denigrates the migrant carers looking after your loved ones
It’s bad enough that the government has swallowed this anti-immigrant rhetoric wholesale; that it’s decided to land its misdirected toughness on the care workers is dumb on so many levels. First, Starmer’s claim that that migrant care workers are “cheap foreign labour”. Pause to note how extraordinary it is, to hear this kind of denigratory language coming from a human-rights lawyer. It is also untrue that migrants are driving down wages. People who employ care workers could tell him it’s untrue; data could tell him it’s untrue. The last vestige of faith in this Labour government was that it rooted its arguments in fact.
Zoe Williams, Immigration and asylum
Labour can’t keep papering over the cracks in the care sector
As any regular care home visitor will attest, these are highly skilled, overwhelmingly female workers, surrounding those they look after… with diligence and love. Wherever they come from, we should be treating them better.
Heather Stewart, Economics viewpoint
Guardian letters
We are no strangers to highly skilled care staff – 15th May
Family carers of all ages need looking after too – 28th May
News
MPs warn social care needs substantial investment to fix ‘broken’ system
Cross-party group’s report emphasises risk of failure after finding 3.5 million people not getting care they need. (Guardian)
Care providers say overseas worker crackdown ‘short-sighted’
Care providers have said the government is taking away the “lifeline” of overseas recruitment without fixing the problems that make it difficult to recruit UK staff. (BBC)
Labour axing care worker visa will put services at risk, say unions and care leaders
Unions and care providers have accused the government of putting services at risk after it confirmed plans to shut down the overseas care worker visa route. (Guardian)
New team helps cut adult social care waiting times
City of Wolverhampton Council recently established a new first point of contact for vulnerable adults and they report it has helped to cut the time it takes for people to get support from months to fewer than five days in most cases. (BBC)
Torture or treatment? The rise of the mental asylum
Author and researcher David Whitfield has drawn on his extensive study of the groundbreaking Nottingham General Lunatic Asylum for his latest novel. It is unlikely to come as a surprise that the treatment of the mentally ill in earlier centuries was grim – but just how grim takes some believing. (BBC)
Care homes to work with poets in memory project
Care homes are looking for poets to work with people living with conditions such as dementia to help them unlock memories. Literature Works’ Poetry Cares residency project, which has previously been run in Devon, is searching for poets to deliver weekly sessions at care homes in Stroud and Cheltenham this summer. (BBC)
‘I could sing before I could speak after my stroke’
After Stephen Farlow suffered a haemorrhagic stroke, his family were told it was unlikely he would survive.
He went on to recover but soon found he could sing easily before he was able to speak again.Research shows that some people can sing even if they cannot talk because we use different sides of our brains for speech and music. (BBC)
Vulnerable man wrongly had care ended – ombudsman
A vulnerable man was caused “distress and uncertainty” after he was left without care for three months when a west London council wrongly cut his support, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has ruled. (BBC)
Learning disability care reform needed – review
On the Isle of Man, an independent review into residential care services for adults with learning disabilities identified normalisation of restrictive practices and other issues. The review was commissioned by Manx Care after a number of safeguarding concerns were raised in the autumn of 2024. (BBC)
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