Let’s Talk About Care

Our Managing Director, Ramses Underhill-Smith recently spoke to the folks at Let’s Talk About Care podcast.

A media platform that cares about the care sector, the podcast aims to give people hope for the future. It brings funny, heartwarming and inspiring stories about care and hear from experts, policy makers and celebrities as well as those receiving and giving care.

Host Angeline Albert asked Ramses why care homes and home care agencies should champion LGBT+ rights.

Not only does Ramses conclusively answer the question, he shares his personal insight into why it matters.

You can listen to it here:

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Alternative Care Services works with CQC to create registration breakthrough

At Alternative Care Services we do things a bit differently, we have to as we are the UK’s first and only LGBTQI+ at-home care provider.

It is our mission to make sure all of our clients are provided the very best, discrimination-free service, as we believe dignity and respect is paramount to providing fantastic care.

LGBT care regualted by the CQC

Being the first company of its kind in the UK, we have come across many aspects of the care industry that we believe could be improved – particularly when it comes to working with the ageing LGBTQI+ community.

When we registered as a care provider with the Care Quality Commission, we realised that the independent regulator did not have a category for LGBT service users or companies.

This signified a vital issue to us; that the LGBTQI+ community remains invisible within the care industry, something that we believe must change.

We therefore contacted the folks at the CQC to see how we could effect change and ensure LGBTQI+ service users are acknowledged and offered a choice.

After months of discussions, the regulator agreed that its registration process needed to change and confirmed to us that it would now redevelop the entire CQC registration process!

We are thrilled to have been a catalyst of change and to have worked directly with the CQC to make sure LGBTQI+ people are no longer invisible when it comes to the industry.

It is worth noting that this is still a work in progress, and there is still much to do to, but with the help of fantastic organisations like the CQC, and its staff, we can improve services for all.

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The NHS turns 70 years old

Caring can make such a huge impact

The care and health industry is a challenge to say the least, and at the end of a never-ending day, you sigh in relief when you get one more thing done because you care.

We know how hectic running a health and social service business can be, but imagine if you were the 5th largest employer in the world with 1.2 million staff.

Really caring can make all the difference.

So as the NHS turns 70 years old, everyone at Alternative Care Services wants to thank the staff (past, present and future) for their tireless hard work and dedication to keeping us all healthy, for free!

Thanks to the thousands of people who give their all every day, and who make all of our care services fantastic services, you know who you are.

Pride, No Shame – Ramses

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What it means to be LGBTQI+

There are many types of sexual orientations and gender identities, so we explain what they all stand for:

L – Lesbian: a woman who is attracted to other women

G – Gay: a man who is attracted to other men or broadly people who identify as homosexual

B – Bisexual: a person who is attracted to both men and women

T – Transgender: a person whose gender identity is different from the sex the doctor put down on their birth certificate

Q – Queer: originally used as a discriminatory term, more recently, the term is used by people who are not heterosexual and/or not cisgender and people who reject traditional gender identities and seek a broader and deliberately ambiguous alternative to the label.

Q – Questioning: a person who is still exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity

I – Intersex: a person whose body is not definitively male or female. This may be because they have chromosomes which are not XX or XY or because their genitals or reproductive organs are not considered “standard”

A – Allies: a person who identifies as straight but supports people in the LGBTQQIAAP community

A – Asexual: a person who is not attracted in a sexual way to people of any gender

P – Pansexual: a person whose sexual attraction is not based on gender and may themselves be fluid when it comes to gender or sexual identity

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