Daisy Cooper, MP For St Albans, Visits Abbots Care
We were pleased to welcome Daisy Cooper MP to our St Albans headquarters last week, where she met with our senior leaders and frontline teams to better understand the growing pressures facing the homecare sector and to see first hand how care is delivered in the community.
The visit began at our offices, where our CEO, Camille Leavold MBE, spoke with Daisy about the operational realities currently affecting social care. Their discussion covered the rising demand for homecare, the ongoing challenges around workforce recruitment and retention, funding pressures, and the urgent need for long term, sustainable reform to secure the future of the sector.
Daisy then met members of our operations and leadership team, including Helen Sinden, Managing Director; Sarah Hurley, Care Director; Jane Munyonga, Care Manager; and Ryan Killick, Head of Business. Together, they shared insight into what it takes to deliver high quality, responsive care across Hertfordshire and beyond, supporting people with a wide range of needs in their own homes.
As part of her visit, Daisy also joined our team in the community to observe two homecare visits in St Albans. Seeing care delivered in real time offered a clear picture of the skill, adaptability and compassion our care workers bring to their roles every day. It also highlighted the vital role homecare plays in helping people remain independent and live with dignity in familiar surroundings.
Following the visit, Camille said:
“We were delighted to welcome Daisy Cooper MP to Abbots Care and to have the opportunity to share the realities of delivering homecare in today’s climate. Seeing care in action really highlights the importance of this sector, not only to the individuals we support, but to the wider health and social care system.
Demand for homecare is rising rapidly, yet providers and care workers are under immense pressure. Meaningful engagement with policymakers is essential, as is sustained investment in the sector, if we are to secure a stable and sustainable future for social care.”
Daisy Cooper MP commented on her experience:
“Care workers look after our loved ones and help them to live their best lives, with dignity and independence, yet so much of what they do goes unseen.
Visiting Abbots Care was a real eye opener. From recruitment, training and induction, to managing new requests for care packages from hospitals and families, to the logistics of rescheduling care workers in real time when they encounter the unexpected, to supporting clients with complex needs with compassion, it was impressive to see the scale of the operation from start to finish.
If we want every vulnerable person to be cared for in their time of need, we must find a long term funding solution for social care. It is why we continue to call for the social care review to be completed within one year rather than three, and for the government to progress cross party talks which have stalled. Having seen the work of Abbots Care first hand, I am even more determined to keep up the pressure.”
As Hertfordshire County Council’s lead provider of homecare services, we have been delivering community based care for over 30 years. Today, we support more than 1,300 clients and deliver over 7,500 home visits each week across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire and Dorset. In Hertfordshire, we are rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.
The visit comes at a significant time for the sector. Demand for home based care continues to grow, alongside increasing complexity of need. At the same time, hospitals and emergency departments are under deepening pressure. A recent report from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine highlighted very high bed occupancy, long waits and increasing corridor care situations, in part because patients who are medically ready to leave hospital cannot be discharged due to insufficient homecare and social care support.
Homecare plays a critical role in easing this pressure and supporting safe, timely discharge from hospital. We are grateful for the opportunity to show Daisy the realities of our work and to continue the conversation about how we can build a social care system that is properly resourced and fit for the future.
