Numbers that make for difficult reading
 
The past few weeks have produced a number of news stories that present difficult reading for the government.
 
All local authorities with children’s services across the UK have been informed of the government’s intention to temporarily mandate the National Transfer Scheme, after record numbers of migrants attempted the journey across the English Channel in recent months, culminating in the deaths of 27 people at the end of November.
 
That is a situation that has solutions available, although time will tell whether existing pressures in local areas make such arrangements as  straightforward as hoped.
 
Meanwhile, the Nuffield Trust has warned that the social care sector in England may have lost up to 50,000 workers across all providers of care in the months leading up to winter. The shortfall is fuelling an invisible care crisis in people’s own homes with many unable to access the care they need, impacting hospital discharges.
 
The warning followed a survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services which found that almost 400,000 people are now waiting for an assessment of their needs or service, and that one in two councils has had to respond to a care home closure or bankruptcy over the past six months.
 
As if the winter months were not hard enough already.
 
Michael Lyons, editor