There's an awful lot to social care beyond home help! Social care is a big field, and includes all sorts of residential care, respite care, loads of projects and schemes and day centres - as well as all sorts of care in people's own homes. Some estimates reckon over a million people in the UK are formally involved in delivering social care, with about half employees and half organised voluntary carers. The big client groups are older people, people with disabilities, and young people, but there are many others.
The distinction between social work and social care varies a bit depending on who you're talking to. Broadly, social care includes (almost all) of social work. Some of the legal protection parts of social work aren't always included in social care.
The dividing line between health care and social care can be hard to draw. This is politically important at the moment for two reasons. One is as part of the debate Ian mentioned above about who should pay for care, and how much. Part of this is about getting people (or relatives) to pay for their own care, but part of it can end up as turf wars between NHS Trusts and Social Services Departments about who should pay for a particular care package. This brings me on to the other reason - increasingly it doesn't make sense to organise the two separately. The so-called "bed-blocking problem" is a classic example. So there's a push generally - from the Government and from many in the sector - to work in a more integrated way.
Hope this helps. Congratulations on the position, and thank you for taking on the responsibility. I'm pleased that someone as articulate and informed about issues important to me as you are is advising the government!
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The distinction between social work and social care varies a bit depending on who you're talking to. Broadly, social care includes (almost all) of social work. Some of the legal protection parts of social work aren't always included in social care.
The dividing line between health care and social care can be hard to draw. This is politically important at the moment for two reasons. One is as part of the debate Ian mentioned above about who should pay for care, and how much. Part of this is about getting people (or relatives) to pay for their own care, but part of it can end up as turf wars between NHS Trusts and Social Services Departments about who should pay for a particular care package. This brings me on to the other reason - increasingly it doesn't make sense to organise the two separately. The so-called "bed-blocking problem" is a classic example. So there's a push generally - from the Government and from many in the sector - to work in a more integrated way.
Hope this helps. Congratulations on the position, and thank you for taking on the responsibility. I'm pleased that someone as articulate and informed about issues important to me as you are is advising the government!
-Doug.