Latest News from Everycare
Allied Healthcare at risk of collapse leaving thousands of elderly people on alert.
Allied Healthcare could cease to operate at the end of the month, the Care Quality Commission has said and there is a ‘credible risk’ services could be disrupted.
Thousands of elderly people were put on alert yesterday amid warnings one of the country’s leading care firms is at risk of collapse.
The Care Quality Commission sounded the alarm after saying Allied Healthcare could cease to operate at the end of this month.
It said there was a “credible risk” that services could be “disrupted” if the company collapsed. Allied Heathcare provides home care – help with washing, feeding and dressing – for 9,300 people in 84 councils across England. The company, which has been struggling with debts, employs 8,000 people. Councils have a duty by law to continue to provide care if a private firm goes bust.
For more on this story visit the Daily Mirror Website.
Thousands of people are potentially missing out on claiming tax free childcare according to a report from HMRC.
Carers who have flexible working hours can struggle with child care over the holiday period and should check to see that they are claiming all the help available to them.
Use Tax-Free Childcare over the summer holidays
The Government is reminding ‘stressed out parents’ that help may be available for childcare costs during the summer holidays. According to a YouGov poll, 31% of parents feel stressed trying to arrange childcare for the school holidays.
The poll, for HMRC, also found that around 30% of parents worried about balancing their job and school holiday childcare. With 54% admitting they look forward to their children returning to school in September.
HMRC is reminding working parents with summer childcare costs, that they can use Tax-Free Childcare (TFC), which is worth up to £2,000 per child per year, to pay for regulated holiday clubs during the school holidays. Parents are advised that it is possible to pay into their account regularly and ‘save up’ their TFC allowance and use it for childcare during school holidays.
Internet link: GOV.UK news
The University of Kent have produced a report looking into the cost of care in a residential setting versus the cost of staying at home with live in care. Everycares Eastbourne office was one of the businesses involved in helping collate the data for the universities report. Andy Taylor, Managing director of Everycare Eastbourne said “It has been a fascinating project to be involved in and it highlights the fact that Live in Care is a real alternative to residential care in most areas of the country”
The university paper is now available to view/download from their website. It is no surprise that, particularly in London and the South East of England, live in care represents an affordable alternative compared to residential care. To view the report and get an insight into how care fees vary – click here.
For further information about Everycares live in care service and how it might help you, contact us today.
Carers who have to sleep at their workplace in case they are needed overnight will not be paid minimum hourly rates after a Court of Appeal ruling.
In a decision which could have cost the UK care industry billions if it had gone in favour of workers, three leading judges said carers were only entitled to minimum wage when they were required to be awake for work.
At a hearing in March, the Royal Mencap Society challenged a tribunal decision made in favour of Claire Tomlinson-Blake, a Mencap support worker in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
The court was told that Mrs Tomlinson-Blake received a salary for her full-time job helping vulnerable adults living in their own homes, and sometimes had to work a sleep-in shift between 10pm and 7am. For those shifts she was paid an allowance of £29.05, which included pay for an hour’s work.
If she was woken in the night and had to work for more than an hour, she would receive extra pay for the time worked.
But the Employment Tribunal found she used her “listening ear” and her experience to know when she was needed, and was “working” even when she was asleep.
The tribunal said she was entitled to receive an hourly minimum wage, which would have been more than £60 per shift, a decision upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) last year.
However Lord Justice Underhill, sitting with two other senior judges, said: “For the reasons which I have given I believe that sleepers-in… are to be characterised for the purpose of the regulations as available for work… rather than actually working and so fall within the terms of the sleep-in exception.
To read full details visit the ITV News website
