Sevacare bosses meet with senior politicians to raise awareness of the ‘vital’ sector

The bosses of a national home care provider have met with senior politicians in an attempt to raise awareness of social care and seek improvements to the way it is prioritised.

Sevacare chairman Ravi Bains and chief executive Roger Booker recently met with Paul Uppal, MP for Wolverhampton South West, to press the case for more support for home care.

They told him that around 517,000 adults received support in their home in 2011-12, around 188m hours of care, most of which was provided by the independent sector.

Mr Bains said: “We stressed to the MP that home care and social care in general makes a very considerable contribution to this country.

“It employs 1.5m people - that’s more than the construction industry – and also puts more than £20bn into the economy, more than the distribution of gas and electricity, and yet there is very little support from the Government.

“We want the Government to recognise the vital service home care provides to an ageing population in need of more and more care to retain independence.

“It is only by getting the message across that we will see an improvement in the way that home care is prioritised in this country.”

Recently, Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb also spent time shadowing Sevacare staff in their work as part of a commitment of his to learn more about the delivery of home care.