There is a crisis in our social care system. What role can co-ops and mutual aid groups play in responding to this crisis? A number of initiatives have been set up in other parts of the UK. Is there anything we could do locally?
Contact us if you have any ideas or would like to get involved in exploring options.
Useful resources
Co-operative Care Colne Valley
Co-operative Care Colne Valley was set up to provide a community based small scale, caring co-operative which puts people before profit. Watch this 10 minute presentation setting out their vision and approach.
Why cooperatives could be the answer to the UK’s social care crisis
The idea that social care should be run cooperatively, rather than privately or publicly, is gaining traction in the UK.
Equal Care: The platform co-op radically re-imagining social care
Equal Care Co-op is the UK’s first platform-based social care and support cooperative, operating in the Calder Valley.
Cooperatives are the way to more efficient and compassionate social care
Cooperatives UK analysis shows that more organisations and communities are exploring cooperative approaches in the care sector. Ed Mayo outlines five ways to support them to create a truly sustainable system.
Social care cooperatives can create more flexible support, finds report
A better understanding of cooperative approaches to social care could help transform services to benefit service users and employees in the financially squeezed sector, according to a report by the Cooperative Care Forums for England and Wales.
Care and Share Associates (CASA) – social care with a difference
Set up in 2004 to deliver a fresh and innovative approach to health and social care, CASA is the number one employee-owned domiciliary care company operating in the north of England.
Ownership in Social Care
A paper from the New Economics Foundation that argues for any new social care funding to be used to support new forms of democratic ownership that shift power to care workers, people needing support, and their families and communities instead of reinforcing a top-down model of private ownership.