Mary Bourke: Who Cares? - Episode 1: Being thrown into the system - BBC Sounds Who cares for the carers? Comedian and carer Mary Bourke investigates.

Briefly popping back onto social media to recommend Mary Bourke: Who Cares? on Radio 4 / BBC Sounds. It's funny, it's sad, and it's just beautifully human. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

In yet another sign I'm getting old, I've just heard Jessie J's new single 'No Secrets' and all I can think about is trying to 'protect vulnerable adults' in the early 2000s.

Done!

I suspect that's why he's there. Interim leaders with no interest in the permanent role often do a better job than those simultaneously trying to secure the role longer-term. He can keep things going, safe in the knowledge his liberation is on the horizon. (Assuming they can appoint of course).

I don't think this is a 'shock move' for many in the health and care sector. Interesting to see what Jim Mackey does in the short-term and who is appointed longer-term. This is a tough role that demands a lot, including more political nous than it probably should.

Unpaid carer wins overpayment penalty case against DWP Andrea Tucker has overturned the demand for £4,600 in carer’s allowance overpayments for alleged breaches in benefit rules

Delighted my constituent Andrea has won her long battle with the DWP over Carer’s Allowance repayments, but it should never have come to this.

Thousands of carers like Andrea are caught up in this scandal. This ruling should be the turning point.

I won't be on social media much in 2025. I've been using the time I spent doom-scrolling to write letters to people whose public service I'm grateful for, thanking them for their contributions. It's been lovely to write letters & good for the soul to put out positivity instead of absorb negativity.

NHS England » Neighbourhood health guidelines 2025/26 Why a new approach is needed 1. There is an urgent need to transform the health and care system. We need to move to a neighbourhood health service that will deliver more care at home or closer to home...

Why is NHS England so fond of announcing 'X number of things' and then listing them with letters? Here's another one: 'six core components of neighbourhood health' inexplicably listed A-F. It's so counterintuitive! www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/ne...

As someone slowly progressing a Penetrating Shot Rogue while juggling family, work and lifemin, I'm relieved to know Musk only achieved his Diablo IV stats through account sharing. If anyone middle-aged actually has the time and energy for speedruns, then please share how the heck you're doing it.

Has there actually been an assessment of the pros and cons of flexi-schooling? We seem to have jumped straight to a national position of it being a bad thing here. But I'm only hearing good things from families who do it. Who's doing the evidence-based policy work on this?

Care Bill [HL] - Hansard - UK Parliament Hansard record of the item : 'Care Bill [HL]' on Wednesday 9 October 2013.

The Coalition Government resisted its inclusion in the legal definition of 'wellbeing': hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2013-1... but 'spiritual wellbeing' is an emotive topic again in light of the assisted dying debate. Interesting to see if there will be a new push to redraft the Care Act definition.

Interesting to hear Rachael Maskell MP on BBC Today saying the Commission will look at evidence around "physical, psychological, emotional, social AND spiritual wellbeing". I remember intense debates about spiritual wellbeing and the role of the state during the development of the Care Act.

Is anyone else finding the flu vaccination programme to be quite late this year? I paid for one in October, but my daughter's school isn't getting it until December and the people (aged <65) I know who are eligible for an NHS one still haven't had it.

Play prompts Welsh children to demand apology for black boxer denied title shot Hundreds of children have written to BBBC after watching The Fight, which tells story of boxer Cuthbert Taylor

The kids are alright. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024...

Graphic shows dramatic reduction in polio, rubella, mumps, measles, and hepatitis A cases after the introduction of vaccines for each disease.

Disease prevalence in US states before & after vaccine introduction

Graphic from Edward Tufte
More graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d... 🧪

If you have poor or fluctuating mobility then the symptoms of norovirus are much more difficult to manage than something ENT/respiratory. It's also more disruptive to medication regimes. (Plus it's a laundry stress dream with small children, but most small children + illness combos are pretty gross)

I've just rewatched the Christopher Eccleston series of Doctor Who. Really enjoyed Bad Wolf. Wasn't sure about it the first time around - the parody felt like an overreach - but in a world of Black Mirror, Squid Game and insane makeover shows, it now seems wonderfully prescient.

That sounds like an awful and protracted experience. I hope the surgery - delayed as it was - made a difference.

That sounds awful. I hope she's fairly compensated.

So many knock-on effects to this. I was given the highest strength co-codamol to get me through the year+ NHS wait. If I hadn't been able to pay £300 for a private diagnosis (ovarian scar adhesion) and treatment advice, I fear I'd now be waiting for support with opioid addiction.

This is also one of the reasons I left, but more than this - I found the interspersing of suffering and dying children with porn to be especially distasteful.

Social care 'impasse' at top of government - so what next, asks Laura Kuenssberg Multiple sources say the Treasury is deeply nervous about the cost of fixing social care, and that the PM is yet to decide how to proceed.

Much of this is reminiscent of eight years ago, when many of us stood in a packed room in Parliament and debated a Royal Commission at the invitation of Lamb, Dorrell and Milburn. I wonder where we'd be now if we'd gone ahead then?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Interesting. I think there'd be less of an issue if we'd done more to protect institutional knowledge. My experience is mostly with DHSC, where pay and progression freezes have led to regular churn as people - v reasonably - seek pay increases. Institutional knowledge is lost and policy suffers.

Same. And even with the box ticked to block sensitive content the algorithm kept spamming me with horrific videos. This seems to be a much nicer place!

@brindled.bsky.social Earl Howe was really very good steering the Care Act through. Norman Lamb righty took much credit, but Earl Howe worked just as collaboratively and constructively.

Targets without a method just incentivise gaming and poor behaviour. But here we go again anyway 🙄

Overseas staff 'exploited and trapped' at UK care home Care home staff say they feel exploited and trapped by the firm that brought them to the UK to work.

Overseas staff 'exploited and trapped' at UK care home: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-6768.... On BBC iPlayer
now, or on BBC One tonight at 7pm.

People needing care will "pay a heavy price" for the changes to the migration system. "It is an open secret that inward migration effectively 'saved' the social care workforce last year. Anything that undermines that source of support must be a real concern." www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-6762...

Government plans to raise the minimum salary threshold for skilled worker visas and scale back health & social care visas. This feels so reckless. Social care is hanging by a thread. Where's the concurrent funding injection to encourage people into these roles?
news.sky.com/story/govern...