Digital ThinkIn – How do we fix the crisis in our care homes?

Coronavirus has exposed urgent problems at the heart of the care sector. Thousands of elderly residents have died and frontline care workers on minimum wage have had to cope without adequate PPE. Who is to blame for the disaster that has unfolded in our care homes since March? Central government, local authorities, or the large corporates who own them? What do we know about these companies, the people who run them, invest in them, and profit from their activities? How should they be held to account for their past and future performance?

Chair: James Harding, Editor and Co-founder, Tortoise

Our special guests include
Daniel Carmel-Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Jewish Care and has worked for the organisation for over 22 years. Prior to his role as CEO, Daniel was the Director of Fundraising and Marketing where he held responsibility for the organisation’s voluntary revenue income, capital projects, fundraising, legacy income and marketing, the Jewish Care ‘brand’ and reputation management.

Ian Birrell, columnist and foreign reporter, campaigner, co-founder of Africa Express. He is a former deputy editor of the Independent and worked as a speechwriter for David Cameron during the 2010 election campaign.

Eileen Chubb, founder and Director of Compassion in Care. She is a former care worker who became a whistleblower and then a campaigner. She has campaigned for new legislation to replace the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 to improve whistleblowing rights in the United Kingdom. Chubb has been critical of the ability of the Care Quality Commission to effectively inspect care homes. As a member of the public, she has visited over 300 care homes in the UK undercover. In 2008 she released the book Beyond the Facade which described her experiences. In 2014 she co-founded The Whistler, a fellowship alliance between Compassion in Care and the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ). From 2012 to 2013 she was charity director at Whistleblowers UK.

Nick Hood, Business Risk Advisor at Opus Business Services, specialises in restructuring debt for care homes and international insolvency

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