Sleep In Payments Crisis
Below is the letter we have sent to our members. Whoever you are, member or not, if you are in the care sector, this is really important and we need to support t his campaign!
The Care Alliance Association has asked us to put out this message about the real crisis facing social care because of the recent sleep in payments ruling. It is really important; please read it and if you haven't already done so and you are affected, please complete the survey and look at what else you can do to support the campaign.
Below you will find
- a notice saying that the deadline has been extended until 9th March
- the link to the campaign
- the original e-mail outlining what people can do to support the campaign, this includes lobbying including social media and a day of action
Thank you,
David Smallacombe, CEO Angela Roberts, Deputy CEO
07860 439 809 07535 820 552
David.smallacombe@careandsupportwest.com angela.roberts@careandsupportwest.com
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- Sleep In Crisis campaign.
A quick note that the survey deadline has been extended to close of business Friday 9th March.
We appreciate the survey does take time and resources to complete however this is an essential building block in providing new data to inform the collective public affairs campaign. Without a robust dataset we are left in a poorer influencing position.
We have been encouraged by organisations who have told us that by completing the survey has been a useful exercise, as well as providing a useful basis for briefing local parliamentarians.
Every good wish - and I look forward to catching up with you and members in the future.
Rhidian Hughes
Chief Executive | VODG (Voluntary Organisations Disability Group)
www.vodg.org.uk | 0793 113 1724 | rhidian.hughes@vodg.org.uk | @rhidianhughes
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- Sleep In Crisis e-mail
We are now at the point where it is easy for Government to continue to do nothing to support providers affected by the sleep in payments crisis. A working group/alliance has come together - #SolveSleepIns Alliance - for a time-limited basis, to ensure a full consolidated and coordinated effort on all matters about the payments crisis. Through this email I am summarising some key developments in the hope that you could share with CAA members in order that we can now extend our reach CEOs and owners. (The public affairs briefings are restricted to CAA and your members, the template letter is not.)
Sector-led survey to identify current and future impacts
The Laing Buisson and Frontier Economics research seeks to calculate (again) the back pay liabilities in the sector there is a very urgent need for an independent assessment about the impact that the sleep in payments is having on service arrangements, workforce and sector stability.
We are very grateful to Agenda Consulting and Trowers & Hamlins LLP who have stepped forward to undertake independent research.
- Survey
Their survey is now live and can be accessed via:
www.sleepinsurvey.org.uk
It would be of great help if you could also share news of this story…
https://www.vodg.org.uk/press-releases/independent-survey-to-assess-impact-of-sleep-in-pay-crisis-on-future-of-social-care/
…and the survey link above with your members and encourage further action locally.
Public affairs
There has been a great deal of public affairs work in recent months, and with some successes. Despite our recent campaign wins – getting Labour front bench support and having the Prime Minister questioned directly on sleep-ins at PMQs amongst many others - getting the Government to act won’t be easy. So now is the time for the sector to come together to ramp up approaches to all parliamentarians.
Attached to this email is a letter which, if CAA members could cascade down to chief executives and owners, would help the sector wide campaign. Finding email contact details and changing the letter should take less than five minutes for each constituency – and make a big impact.
If possible it would be helpful to have any responses sent toresearch.policy@vodg.org.uk to ensure sector coordination.
Single day of action
We need a single day of action in April/May as a pre-planned campaign tool to push the Government to act on sleep-ins before it’s too late.
Options could include a mass lobby of Parliament, where a number of people come to Westminster on the same day to meet with their Parliamentarians, a regional/local lobby where providers assist visits to their Parliamentarians in their local offices and a virtual lobby where the networks of all providers (including families, staff and others) are engaged to call and email their Parliamentarians on a specific day with a message about this issue. We believe that the most effective campaign activity may be a strategic combination of all three of the options mentioned.
To plan this, we need to get an idea of what everyone might be able to do. Can you please respond to the three questions below by the end of February please?
1. Can you commit to urging people you support / their families / carers to attend a day at Westminster to lobby Parliamentarians? If yes, how many? What constituencies would they be from?
2. Can you commit to participating locally by urging people you support / their families / carers to their MP’s local office or surgery? If yes, how many in which constituencies?
3. Can you commit to participating by promoting to your staff, volunteers and other relevant contacts that they make a phone call in support of our campaign including any mailing lists and social media outlets you currently use? Approximately how many people would this be to and in which constituencies are they likely to be based?
Please email research.policy@vodg.org.uk with your responses by 28 February 2018. Alternatively if CAA or individual associations wish to collate regional responses that would be helpful too.
Your response will allow us to know what we are working with to strategically plan the most effective campaign action. And we need to start planning now.
Social media
For those individuals and organisations that are in a position to comment and share publicly please use these hashtags in the weeks ahead:
#SolveSleepIns
#StopSleepInCrisis