Why we need social care co-ops

with Graham Mitchell of Co-operative Care Colne Valley

Graham is part of a group starting a social care co-op in the Colne Valley, West Yorkshire, and they’re also building a toolkit / step-by-step guide for people to start a social care coop in their own community. I’m interested in how this toolkit can help grow the cooperative social care sector.

Highlights

  1. It was clear that social care in this country isn’t working for anybody particularly well. That goes for providers as well as people who use social care services and the local authorities.
  2. The distance between the governed and the governors is too great. They lose sight of the humans involved, and it all becomes numbers.It was clear that social care in this country isn’t working for anybody particularly well. That goes for providers as well as people who use social care services and the local authorities.
  3. We’ve talked about the problems of care-givers, but also, care receivers are not getting the quality of care that they could. In terms of trying to tackle those dual problems, we wanted to bring those people together and give them control, so that they’re right at the heart of the operation, and co-owners of the business.

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