Sex, Class and CCTV: The Covert Surveillance of Paid Homecare Workers

Public interest in the surveillance of care workers employed to care for older and disabled adults is rising rapidly in the UK. A number of high-profile exposés of elder abuse in private living spaces have fuelled concerns about the ability of regulatory agencies to protect vulnerable adults. News stories and court reports provide accounts of the circumstances in which families take matters into their own hands and use CCTV or hidden cameras to gather evidence about the abuse of older people receiving care; either in institutional settings or in their own private homes. The post-Fordist deregulation of employment in the care sector, together with a lack of public confidence in the statutory bodies responsible for care standards, has created conditions in which surveillance has emerged as a new regulatory dynamic.