Care in the time of coronavirus

In 2021, COVID-19 swept through England’s care services. The impact on people receiving care and support was profound, with over 27,000 ‘excess’ deaths (those above the number that would usually be expected) in care homes and nearly 10,000 lives lost among those receiving care at home (Dunn et al, 2021). Visiting restrictions to limit the spread of the virus caused further anguish to care home residents and their families and friends. The high numbers of deaths among people with learning disabilities, people sectioned under the Mental Health Act and those from ethnic minority groups highlighted by independent researchers and the Care Quality Commission ought to attract more concern than it has. The pandemic also lifted the lid on the experience of the health and social care workforce and created new awareness of the experience of those working in care.

Before COVID-19 came, social care was not seen as a job like coal-mining or deep-sea fishing, where going to work might cost you your life. By December 2020, the virus had taken the lives of 469 care workers, twice the rate of all workers and even higher than health care workers, including doctors and nurses (ONS, 2021b). Levels of staff sickness nearly doubled over the course of the pandemic (Skills for Care, 2021). On the one hand, it has brought out the best in our care services, the way staff went beyond the call of duty in, for example, covering the work of colleagues who were sick or self-isolating, prioritising the protection of people they were caring for over their own needs and those of their own families.