The inspection problem could be devolved to the 'big society', Dave. The unemployed could 'earn' their benefits dropping in - unannounced - to get the feel of what's going on. Empathy and a healthy dose of cynicism are the only qualities needed.

The present regulator of care homes, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), is overburdened and under-resourced.

Last year, (it) abolished automatic yearly inspections for such homes. And as the organisation's budget is squeezed by the Government's spending cuts, the CQC is going to find itself even more stretched.

This new approach from the Government seems to be an attempt to use the purchasing power of the state to raise care standards.

Homes that refuse to submit to an excellence test risk losing public funding.

Since most private-run care homes rely on local council funding for the bulk of their income, ministers expect that most will submit to them ...

Who will perform these inspections if not the CQC? Will private inspection bodies be allowed to bid for business?

If care homes are paying for the inspections, there is a risk that they could become corrupted and confer the awards that their paymasters demand, rather than the awards that are deserved.

This is precisely what occurred when the banks paid supposedly independent credit rating agencies to grade their subprime mortgage securities ...

Independent  28 Feb 2011

End energy profiteering: The rich get richer, the poor get colder

An estimated 3,000 winter deaths are caused every year by fuel poverty and as the winter chill really begins to hit home, with more snow and icy weather forecast for the next few days, it could be the worst time for the vulnerable, particularly the elderly ...

The increases have more people than ever slipping into fuel poverty – when their gas and electricity costs account for at least a tenth of their income.

According to research from uSwitch, £1,500 a year on energy is the tipping point at which three-quarters of households will start rationing their energy, three-fifths will go without adequate heating and more than a third will be forced to turn their heating off entirely.

That figure looks like edging ever closer as further energy increases seem highly likely, especially after wholesale gas prices reached a six-year high earlier this week.

Meanwhile, in October the regulator Ofgem revealed that energy suppliers had increased their profit margins by a whopping 733 per cent, from £15 to £125 per household ...

Ind  10 Feb 2012    A 'modern and compassionate party'    Energy Policy    Falling Living Standards

Fair Energy?

Elderly told: go back to work and downsize

Downsizing living standards, and swelling the labour market with the No.10 Behavioural Insight Team. What a waste of taxpayers' hard earned!

Evidence is now emerging of the dangers associated with elderly people becoming lonely and isolated after retiring.

The increase in the retirement age could lead to a wider change, under plans set out by Mr Halpern, the director of the No.10 Behavioural Insight Team, known as the “nudge unit”.

He heads the government team which has the task of developing ways to change people’s behaviour that do not require legislation or other heavy-handed actions from the state.

In a presentation, Mr Halpern said pensioners should be encouraged to return to work because of the benefits of social interaction for the elderly ...

Tel  09 Feb 2012    Do less, make it seem like more    'Nudge'    Ponzi Housing Market    Youth Unemployment

Full Employment? Where from?    The Myth of Full Employment

Promises to simplify elderly care not kept

Ministers had claimed that they were putting an extra £2bn into local authorities' social care budgets.

The committee's report says that this is "not sufficient to maintain adequate levels of service quality", while an analysis for the King's Fund says a funding gap of £1.2bn could open up by 2014 unless councils can achieve unprecedented efficiency savings.

Many experts say that elderly patients are left confused by a system where they have to repeatedly give their details, undergo unnecessary repeat tests, and are left on their own to negotiate with councils, the NHS and welfare agencies.

In a damning assessment, the MPs say Lansley's reforms are built on the "hope" that GPs, hospitals and councils will respond to payments for working together.

Instead, the MPs argue that there should be a body set up just to commission services for elderly people, drawing on budgets from health, social care and welfare ...

Gdn  08 Feb 2012

Pensioners 'passed like parcels' by care agencies

Up to 1.20 million frail and vulnerable patients are seeing their quality of life diminished because of a "salami slicing" of services and a failure to integrate health and social care, a report by the Commons health committee says ... the report warns that reforms will fail unless the system is radically overhauled to end an "artificial distinction" between health and social care dating back 80 years.

At present it is common for doctors and social services departments to duplicate each other’s work, carrying out multiple assessments on the same patients without pooling their efforts.

The lack of co-ordination means opportunities to help elderly patients are missed, with many ending up in hospital with acute conditions that could have been avoided ...

Tel  07 Feb 2012    Dilnot Report    'Dignity and Compassion'    NHS 'Reforms'

"Unsustainable Burdens"

The Government must make reforming the care system a top priority

Elderly 'robbed of dignity' by failing social care services

SIR – As a society we face a growing care challenge. We should celebrate the fact that we are all living longer lives, particularly disabled people and those with long-term conditions.

But the unavoidable challenge we face is how to support the increasing number of people who need care.

It is a challenge which we are failing to meet – resulting in terrible examples of abuse and neglect in parts of the care system.

This comes at huge cost to the dignity and independence of older and disabled people, but also to our society, family life and the economy.

An estimated 800,000 older people are being left without basic care – lonely, isolated and at risk.

Others face losing their homes and savings because of soaring care bills.

Disabled people are unable get the support they need to live their lives independently and be part of society.

Businesses are losing increasing numbers of experienced staff who are forced to give up work to care for older or disabled relatives.

These carers can then be pushed to breaking point, providing round-the-clock care.

Our NHS is also paying the price, as a lack of support leads to avoidable hospital admissions and then keeps older and disabled in hospital beds because they cannot be cared for at home.

We have a duty as a nation to change this – but it requires political leadership.

This summer, the independent Dilnot Commission into Funding of Care and Support published its recommendations.

In response, the Government has committed to publishing a White Paper on Social Care by April.

With new cross-party talks on the future of care, we are closer than ever to reaching a new consensus.

We urge the Government and the other party leaders to seize this opportunity for urgent, fundamental and lasting reform: delivering a social care system which can provide the well-funded and high-quality care and support we would all expect for ourselves and our families.

Tel  03 Jan 2012    Dilnot Report

A ... caring society?    Methodological Individualism    The FYB dystopia

Social care leaving elderly to suffer 'terrible abuse'

Social care

Twenty-two days to get out of home

A window onto the corporate state's outsourcing of the 'care' of old people: unwanted 'parcels' to be shifted around

ELDERLY residents have been told they have just days to leave a Fylde coast rest home after administrators announced its closure between Christmas and New Year.

... in an anonymous letter to the paper, one worker said:

"The announcement has reduced long time residents to tears.

"It couldn’t come at a worse time than over Christmas.

"It has been a very upsetting few days ... for everyone involved."

Matthew Dunham, an administrator at Grant Thornton, said it was not an easy decision to make, especially at this time of year ...

"We have given 28 days notice, the time we have to give to the local authority who will work with us to try to re-home residents ...

Blackpool Gazette  07 Dec 2011    Third Meltdown Log

Marginalised by Standortkonkurrenz

'Unsustainable Burdens'

Care homes: Southern Cross failure 'may be repeated'

In September, the National Audit Office warned of the need to offer more protection to those affected by failing services, and the parliamentary committee which oversees its work has reinforced that message.

Committee chairman Margaret Hodge said it was "deeply worrying" that the Department of Health had not yet made it clear what would happen if a care home firm were to fail.

"This is crucial to protect frail and vulnerable users of care and to provide reassurance that the responsibilities of the failed providers will be transferred quickly and with minimum disruption to users," she said.

The market itself was contributing to the problem, she added, with some areas more vulnerable to a care firm failure than others, as the homes run by smaller firms are bought out by larger groups.

"No-one, government or local authorities, really knows what is going on locally or whether one provider is becoming too dominant." ...

The committee report also highlighted rising levels of debt in care firms.

Mrs Hodge said one company "carries nearly £1bn of debt - yet the department is not monitoring their financial health." ...

BBC NEWS  06 Dec 2011    A 'modern and compassionate party'    Outsourcing    Third Meltdown Log

Marginalised by Standortkonkurrenz    'Unsustainable Burdens'

HSBC fined £10m for mis-selling to pensioners

The FSA said that between 2005 and 2010, a subsidiary of the bank, NHFA (previously known as the Nursing Home Fees Agency) advised 2,485 customers to invest in investment bonds, and other asset-based products, to fund long-term care costs.

The average age of these customers was 83 – and a sample review suggested that almost 90pc of these cases were mis-sold.

In total the amount invested in these products was close to £285m – meaning the average amount invested per customer was about £115,000.

The FSA ruled that this advice was unsuitable, because these products were designed to be held for a minimum of five years; but many of these customers were not expected to live this long.

A combination of capital withdraw, and high product charges meant that people's money was reduced far faster than if they had been recommended alternatives – such as a high-interest fixed-rate account, or an Isa ...

Tel  05 Dec 2011    Bankocracy Log    Corporate Sociopathy Log    Third Meltdown Log

Health watchdogs to target 250 home help agencies

Hundreds of home help agencies will be inspected by the health watchdog next year amid growing concerns that vulnerable elderly people are being abused and neglected in their own houses ...

It's called the "Fuck You Buddy" dystopia.

It starts with the rich believing that they are not part of society, but something quite separate.

It blossoms when a Prime Minister tells us "There's no such thing as society".

It gets even worse when New Labour introduce centralist targets into the public services to prepare them for commodification.

Messrs Friedman, Pinochet, Reagan and Thatcher have got their wish: methodological individualism morphed into the new social Darwinism, topped-up with overtones of the Nazi's 'life unworthy of life'.

Tel  23 Nov 2011
'Big Society' Con    Corporate State Log    Dilnot Report    Third Meltdown Log

Marginalised    Plato v Illich    'Unsustainable Burdens'

Health watchdog branded unfit for purpose ...

Revealed: growing crisis in UK home care sector

The corporate state v Ivan Illich's 'conviviality'

The title of the page - 'Caring for the elderly the free market way' - is wrong.

There is actually nothing free market about it.

This is, in fact 'Caring for the elderly the corporate state way'.

Government - central/local - is without the resources necessary to offer the level of care actually needed.

The reasoning goes that taxpayers would revolt at the levels of taxation needed, and/or, the markets would revolt at the levels of taxation needed.

So the answer is not the private sector, but the outsourced sector: not quite the same thing.

Which in the case of old people is the care agencies, to whom care is outsourced.

But central/local government controls the funding.

The 'conviviality' route - the Ivan Illich route - remains unexplored, partly because it would come against the big 'success' neoliberals have achieved: the 'autonomous individual - aka, the 'Fuck you buddy' dystopia; and partly because of its twin success in the world of work - depressed wages and precarity - also militate against 'conviviality'.

These are the reasons why David Cameron's fake - democratic centrist - version of conviviality, the 'Big Society', is a stillborn joke.

Nearly half a million older people receive care in their own homes paid for by the local authority.

But Channel 4 News has seen evidence the system is struggling to cope ...

Our investigation revealed a complex - and failing - system.

Workers describe acute time pressures that force them to cut corners.

Care agencies report that councils demand ever-shorter visits and cheaper services.

Councils themselves are feeling the squeeze of cuts - and many of their duties towards older people are discretionary, not a legal duty, making older people's services an obvious target for cost-cutting ...

C4 News  22 Nov 2011    'Big Society' Con    Commodifying care for the elderly
Corporate State Log    Cutting the deficit, shrinking the state    Outsourcing    Third Meltdown Log

Marginalised    Plato v Illich

Public concern at work

Scandal of elderly facing abuse and neglect in own homes

Health watchdogs to target 250 home help agencies

Doubling in number of care home firms collapsing into administration

Accountants Wilkins Kennedy on Monday said the government's squeeze on social care spending coupled with rising debts and high rents led to 73 care companies entering administration over the year to the end of September, compared with 35 in the previous 12 months ...

... this summer a string of smaller companies have collapsed including north Wales-based Southern Care Group, Cheshire's Winnie Care Group and Stockport's Grosvenor Care.

Argus Care Group, with 500 residents in Scotland, last week became the latest casualty.

Anthony Cork, a partner at Wilkins Kennedy, said:

"The care sector has gone through a long period of expansion during the boom years with many companies taking on large debts to fund growth.

"This worked fine as long as local government funding kept increasing, but with the recession and cutbacks that ensued, many care homes found themselves unable to service their debts.

"In a growing economy, they could have sold their property assets for redevelopment to reduce their debt levels, but this wasn't an option because there are no buyers in the current market."

Cork said the biggest problem for many care home groups was their eagerness to sell their properties and lease them back at ever-increasing rents ...

Gdn  14 Nov 2011    Outsourcing    Third Meltdown

Elderly struggling to cope with social care cuts

Government figures show that councils' annual budgets for help for the over-65s has fallen by £1.3bn since 2010, with cuts hitting nursing homes and support for the most vulnerable.

Despite chancellor George Osborne's promise last year to provide and extra £2bn for councils to spend on care homes, meals on wheels and daily help for the elderly and disabled, research conducted by the Commons Library suggests that the money, which was not ring-fenced, had not reached the frontline.

Instead, the figures show that in 2009-10 councils in England spent £7.6bn on social care for the over-65s compared to £6.3bn this year – a cut of nearly a fifth (17%) ...

BBC NEWS  28 Oct 2011    A 'modern and compassionate party'    Coalition Log    
Cutting the Deficit    George Osborne    Third Meltdown

Marginalised Home Page    'Unsustainable burdens'

Elderly patients condemned to early death by secret use of do not resuscitate orders

'Life unworthy of life'

Action on Elder Abuse ... uncover(d) widespread evidence that patients are being left to die, without families knowing that such decisions have been taken.

Documented cases include:

* Inspectors who visited Queen Elizabeth Hospital, run by University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation trust, found no evidence that any of the patients whose files were marked DNR had been informed about the decision, nor their relatives told. The hospital's own audit showed that in one ward, 30 per cent of cases did not involve any such conversations.

* At University Hospitals Bristol Foundation trust, there was no evidence that a DNR order placed on a patient had been discussed with the person or next of kin. A junior doctor told inspectors that they did "not tend to discuss" such decisions with families.

* At Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, run by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital trust, a patient was labelled as DNR based on old medical notes from a previous admission – despite the fact their health had improved.

* Asked how decisions to make such orders were made, staff at Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation trust gave an example of an elderly person on the ward with health problems judged to make "resuscitation less appropriate". The doctor involved did not know if the patient or an advocate had been asked for an opinion, or told that the notice had been imposed.

* At Conquest Hospital, run by East Sussex Healthcare trust, incomplete DNR forms were placed on patients' files – without their involvement, or the two doctors' signatures required to validate them. The hospital was the only one of the five to fail CQC's basic standards on dignity and respect of patients.

Tel  15 Oct 2011    Third Meltdown Log

Autonmous Individualism    Marginalised    'Unsustainable Burdens'

Action on Elder Abuse

Half of hospitals 'failing to feed elderly patients properly'

Patient 'care' was "being affected" long before the current cuts, Ms Davies.

Staff forgetting to give food and water, while dignified care is lacking at 40% of hospitals ...

Of 100 hospital inspections by the Care Quality Commission, 49 gave rise to minor, moderate or major concerns about problems with nutritional standards for elderly people ...

Janet Davies, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: "We know that with many nursing posts being lost and another 40,000 NHS posts already earmarked to go, patient care is being affected."

Gdn  08 Oct 2011    Third Meltdown Log

Marginalised Home Page    'Unsustainable burdens'

Elderly care in the NHS: 'There is nowhere for people to go'

The NHS is desperate to cut beds and the time people stay in them.

But many frail old patients must remain on the wards because there is no suitable care for them at home ...

If the hospital can swiftly usher patients out of the building, it can shut down wards, a process that the hospital chief executive, Mark Newbold, sees as a sign of success.

"The real breakthrough in terms of reducing staff is when you reduce capacity.

"So if we can close a ward, then we don't need those staff, and no one will notice that those staff aren't there because that facility is not open," Newbold says.

However, reality throws up obstacles to this plan.

Because social services budgets are being cut at the same time, delays beyond the control of hospital staff slow the flow of patients back into the community ...

Gdn  12 July 2011    Coalition Log    Cutting the Deficit    NHS 'Reform'

Thousands face uncertain future as care home chain is broken up

Hundreds of Southern Cross care homes could be returned to companies registered overseas in tax havens where little information about their finances or their directors is publicly available.

Southern Cross, which runs 752 care homes in the UK, caused huge anxiety for its elderly residents and their relatives when it announced its closure yesterday after months of speculation about its financial woes.

Analysis by the GMB union revealed the names of 80 landlords who own 615 of the homes, many of which are subsidiaries of larger companies registered overseas.

This makes it much harder to obtain financial information about the companies as rules governing accountability and transparency, especially in "tax havens" such as Jersey, Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands are significantly more lax.

In addition, the GMB was unable to trace more than 120 landlords, which mean thousands of people are living in care homes where the identities of the owners and directors are unknown.

In the absence of full company accounts and other relevant information, such as the names of directors, it is "nigh on impossible" to assess whether they are suitable to run care homes funded in large part by public money ...

Ind  12 July 2011    Coalition Log    FYB Log    Outsourcing    Southern Cross

Marginalised    Social Democracy or Social Darwinism?

Southern Cross care homes group to close

Chief executive Jamie Buchan said:

"My objective, and that of my team, is to continue to provide excellent care to every resident and to manage the programme of transition professionally.

"All 44,000 staff can take pride from the significant operational turnaround and improvements in care delivery which have been achieved over the past two years." ...

Ind  11 July 2011    FYB Log    Outsourcing    Southern Cross 'Care' Homes

Marginalised    

Southern Cross staff asked to sign away employment rights

The grey lobby is bad for Britain’s health

I wonder how many people blogging on here realise the role played by grandparents in bringing up their grandchildren?

Courtesy the stagnation of wages since May 1979, both parents MUST now work in order to pay the bills. Which is why 'parasitic' grandparents step in.

Furthermore, the young have little to look forward to in terms of the job markets: work is now largely low skill, undemanding, and precarious, and even graduates are finding the labour market more and more difficult.

This is what happens when a country 'sells the family silver' in pursuit of utopian theory turned into a policy statement such as the Washington Consensus.

Like previous utopian theories, globalised 'free' markets need human beings to fit into a preconceived mould, in this case the extreme indiviualism of the 'philosopher' Ayn Rand.

The old are but one group who are not going to make the grade in the pursuit of Objectivism.

The bigger problem is that, in abolishing altruism and empathy, the 'big society' is killed on day one, as the motivations which might have moved people to participate no longer exist.

The basics are clear: the flow of younger workers is slowing, while the Baby Boomers are both living longer and retiring on a mass scale.

Between 2011 and 2016, the number of people aged 65 and over will rise by 1.4 million.

By 2041, there will be just two and a half workers for every retired person, down from nearly four now.

As Reform’s new report, Old and Broke, makes clear, this means that by 2041, the pensions bill will be £32 billion higher (in today’s money) and health and care spending will increase by around £40 billion.

This cannot conceivably be afforded from current spending – so while the deficit will indeed fall during this parliament, it will start to increase again in the next, and then keep increasing ...

Telegraph  28 June 2011    Caring the free market way    Coalition Log

Autonomous Individualism     Communitarian Citizenship

The problem of moral indifference    'Unsustainable Burdens'

Elderly care crisis 'will get much worse'

Preliminary figures from leading health economist William Laing reveal the extent of the squeeze across the sector.

Mr Laing carries out an annual survey of the fees councils pay to care homes. This year, there has been an average rise in fees across the UK of just 0.5%.

This equates to a real terms cut of 2.5% after inflation is taken into account.

Most councils have completely frozen their fees, which means a 3% real terms cut.

Mr Laing's figures are based on 70% of the 200 councils in Britain.

They show widespread cuts across England in the current financial year, with the deepest in Wirral, which is proposing to take 9.5% off its fees.

Just over half of elderly care home residents are paid for by local councils.

Mr Laing said on average, local authorities were paying about £100 a week less than the true cost of care for each resident, with privately run homes staying in business by charging those who pay for their own care more than the market rate ...

As well as cutting fees and selling off homes, many councils are cutting back the care they provide to elderly people in their own homes.

In Birmingham, where fees are not yet finalised but where a 7% cut is expected, the council is cutting £50m from its social care budget ...

BBC NEWS  28 June 2011    Coalition Log

No such thing as society    'Putting people first'

Very few save for old age care

Social care funding crisis looming

The real health challenge has been ignored in this debate

... one of the frustrating things about this row is that it has distracted political and clinical professional attention from the challenge of bringing down costs. A painful slog lies ahead if the NHS is to achieve the £20bn in savings that it needs to make by 2015.

The debate about the Bill has focused on elective surgery. But 70 per cent of health expenditure goes on elderly patients with chronic diseases.

And that is where demand will explode over the coming years as our population ages.

This debate has often felt like a way of ignoring these difficult facts.

Ind  14 June 2011    Coalition Log    NHS 'Reform'    

NHS bill: concession or sleight of hand?

NHS: Field theory

Cable rules out Southern Cross rescue

Cable said: "There is no way we can bail out the company. But I have asked my officials to look carefully at the business models of companies that provide public services and ensure they are stable and the sector regulators responsible for them are able to act responsibly." ...

[Southern Cross] stoked more controversy after it emerged that fees to advisers are running at £500,000 a week, with accountants KPMG, legal firm Clifford Chance and investment bank Greenhill taking the lion's share ...

Gdn  09 June 2011    FYB Log    Southern Cross

Taxpayers may have to pay new levy to meet future cost of care homes

So let's add it up: there's the higher education debt, the mortgage debt, the pension debt, and the care debt. On the other hand there's inflation and the squeeze on wage rates. It's called 'standortkonkurrenz'.

Taxpayers may have to pay an "old age care levy" to help fund the nursing homes of the future ...

Ind  13 May 2011    Coalition Log

Caring ... the free market way    No such thing as society    Southern Cross    'Standortkonkurrenz'

Councils set up contingency plans amid fears Southern Cross care homes could close

Southern Cross has issued a profits warning blaming a reduction in fees paid by local authorities to look after patients and rising rents ...

An investigation by ITV News found that councils have started to set up research groups because of concerns that the reduction in funding for elderly care could make Southern Cross’s business unsustainable.

Under the emergency plans local authorities will receive advice on how to move residents and how to find alternative care homes in the event of sudden closures ...

Judy Downey, from the Relatives and Residents Association, said:

“There must be some emergency plan not just for Southern Cross but for any home that fails. We have to have disaster planning for a factory blowing up, a plane coming down. Why haven’t they thought about elderly people in exactly the same way?”

Southern Cross employs more than 40,000 staff and is in negotiations with landlords over rent rates ...

Councils pay around half of fees to care homes but the amount it pays per patient has been squeezed due to funding cuts.

Earlier this year, the care home company reported that occupancy in the three months until December 31 was down to 87.6 per cent from 90.7 per cent a year earlier following a decline in admissions of elderly residents by local authorities.

This followed annual losses for the year up to September 30, 2010 of more than £47 million.

Tel  16 Apr 2011

31,000 Elderly Homeless?

GMB: Southern Cross

Councils slashing free adult social care

Thousands of older people and those with disabilities have had their care cut in the past year as cash-strapped councils reduce the level of support they provide, a survey has found.

The number of councils in England cutting back on free adult social care has increased by 13% this year, according to the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass).

It found that 19 local authorities had raised the eligibility bar for free adult social care.

Six councils, including the largest, Birmingham, are limiting free care to people in "critical" need, which includes those with life-threatening conditions. Another 116 of 148 councils surveyed only fund people with substantial needs.

Only 22 local authorities now fund people with moderate needs, such as those too frail or ill to eat a meal or take a bath without assistance. Previously, 36 councils gave this assistance.

Richard Jones, chairman of Adass, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "This is a group who five years ago half of councils were providing support to, now we're down to fewer than 20%. And we fear with more cuts to come in future years it could get even worse."

The move follow a sharp reduction in central funding for local authorities by the coalition government ...

Gdn  16 Apr 2011

Cartesian Dualism    Cutting or Caring?    On the failure of methodological individualism    Outsourcing with Southern Cross    The problem of moral indifference    Wasted Lives

Cost of care in old age rises to average of £50,000

Council cuts 'put more pressure on the NHS'

Social care 'facing funding gap of over £1bn'

Social care 'facing funding gap of over £1bn'

The King's Fund said the most likely scenario was that the social care budget would be cut by 7% in real terms - meaning a funding gap of £1.2bn would open up within four years.

If this happened it would mean fewer people getting help at home or access to care homes.

This, in turn, the report argued, would increase the risk of emergency admissions because of accidents such as falls or deteriorating health as people struggled on with less support from social services.

The lack of support could also mean a rise in delayed discharges - whereby hospitals cannot release people because of a lack of help available when they return home ...

BBC NEWS  17 Mar 2011

Southern Cross shares slump as takeover hopes fade

Southern Cross, the UK's largest care home operator, has said it could be forced to hand back the keys to some of its nursing homes, creating uncertainty for tens of thousands of elderly residents.

The chief executive, Jamie Buchan, said the company was going to breach loan agreements with its bankers and was seeking urgent talks with landlords as the current rent bill was "unsustainable".

In a further blow, the company revealed that takeover talks begun last year had come to nothing, while trading had deteriorated in the last five weeks as hard-up councils cut back on residential placements ...

Guardian  14 Mar 2011

Cutting and Caring?

Debts that threaten the elderly and vulnerable

'Unsustainable' burdens

Southern Cross Healthcare

Nursing homes are to be told to submit to new "excellence tests" or risk losing public funding, under plans to be announced today.

Homes will be assessed on staff training and turn-over, dally activities for residents, and the quality of care they offer.

Only those which professionally register all their staff are expected to be allowed to take part and the results of the tests will be published

Ministers have warned that only institutions which meet the new standards are likely to be funded by local councils.

Critics of the plan said small independent care homes might not be able to afford the cost of registering and could go bankrupt

More than half a million elderly people are in nursing homes and the number is expected to rise to 1.3 million by 2050.

At Christmas, the Care Quality Commission made spot inspections of 234 health and social-care institutions, which revealed significant lapses in standards in more than a third of cases.

Ten reviews resulted in the highest form of censure, which could mean operating licenses being withdrawn.

Speaking before a consultation to decide how the excellence rating will be assessed, Paul Burstow, the Care Services minister, said:

"Compassion, common sense, treating people with dignity and respect are not simply about spending more. They are about the way you do things.

We want to look at what's being done [in nursing homes] to add life to the years you're having rather than just adding years to the life you're leading.

The scheme will start as optional, with the cost of inspections borne by the care homes.

Later in the year, the Government will unveil long-term plans for reforming the care sector.

These are likely to include the introduction of a new "insurance model" to pay for care in later life.

People without insurance forfeit their assets when they die to pay for care they have received.

i  28 Feb 2011

Bed blocking on the rise as care cuts leave elderly stuck in hospital

In a survey of 502 doctors working in UK hospitals, 251 (50%) said the problem known as "bed blocking" – which costs the NHS tens of millions of pounds a year and forces needier patients to wait on trolleys – was worse now than a year ago, while 200 (40%) said it had not improved.

The poll was conducted for the Guardian by Doctors.net.uk, an online professional network to which 90% of UK medics belong.

Senior doctors and hospital bosses confirmed that the gloomy picture emerging from the poll reflected reality.

They blamed local councils for making it harder for older people to access home help for vital tasks, such as eating and washing, and so forcing them to stay in hospital unnecessarily.

Some questioned whether the NHS's ongoing reduction in its bed capacity had gone too far.

They also said that recent cuts to local council social services budgets were exacerbating the problem.

Councils' recent restriction of access to social care by redefining the eligibility criteria has left older people who have been unwell trapped in hospital because they cannot afford to return to living independently at home ...

Guardian  04 Jan 2011

The migrants who care

Nearly one in five care workers employed in the UK residential and home care sectors are migrants coming from either the EU ... or third countries ...

Nearly half of them have come to the UK since the beginning of the 2000s, accounting for about 40% of the expansion of the workforce ...

These figures suggest that reliance on the migrant workforce has become a structural feature of the long-term care sector ...

... the vast majority of organisations employing migrant workers agree that migrants have a good work ethic, are respectful towards older clients and are willing to learn new skills.

There is a clear need to balance the rights and entitlements of two vulnerable groups ...

In this respect, an immigration policy which selects workers on the basis of formal qualifications and measurable skills does not match the needs of the care sector, where 'soft skills' - such as commitment, kindness, compassion or sympathy - are equally, or even more, important for the well-being of older care recipients ...

If the provision of long-term care continues to depend upon large numbers of migrant workers, it should be among the priorities of policy-making ... to tackle the significant unresolved issues related to their employment.

The role of migrant carers has to be planned and not an unintentional consequence of the low prioritisation of the sector.

openDemocracy  07 Dec 2010

Adult social care workforce strategy

Dementia nursing care needs overhaul

Barbara Pointon, from Dementia UK and the Alzheimer's Society, said:

"What's happening with NHS continuing health care is it's getting more and more difficult to get in the first place, and when people with dementia move into the advanced stage and need more care, it's being taken away from them."

The King's Fund is calling for a shake-up of the system that differentiates between health care, which the NHS pays for, and social care, which local authorities and individuals have to fund.

Richard Humphries, from the health think tank, told the BBC:

"The system is increasingly broken and it will struggle to cope with the rising tide of people with dementia and people will become more dissatisfied with it.

"We desperately need a radical overall to bring more fairness and more funding into the system." ...

BBC NEWS  04 Dec 2010

Alzheimer's Society

Dementia UK

Shocking accounts of poor patient care

Today the patients association publishes Listen to patients, Speak up for change, a collection of 17 firsthand accounts of hospital care of older patients from across the NHS.

The stories highlight serious failings in standards of nursing care, poor communication with relatives and an ineffective complaints handling system ...

Chief Executive Katherine Murphy said:

'Surely the essentials of nursing care are what every patient deserves and should get?

'The NHS should get this right all of the time. Lack of help with eating and drinking.

'Lack of help with personal hygiene. Lack of help with toileting needs.

'It is clear from the stories we hear on our Helpline that too many patients are being badly let down.

'It’s a scandal and it’s outrageous that has been persisting for years. Families are left with a life sentence of grief, with no lessons learnt and the same failings continuing.' ...

Patients Association  02 Dec 2010

Care of Older People

Further austerity needed to pay for elderly care, says OBR

Britain faces another round of tax rises and spending cuts within a decade to address the "unsustainable" pressure the country's ageing population is putting on the economy, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility ...

Five years of the most draconian cuts since the Second World War will not be enough to push public debt below 50pc of GDP as the cost of care for the elderly starts to escalate in 2020.

Moreover, if state and public sector pensions are also left unchanged, public debt will rise to 100pc of GDP within 40 years in spite of the current austerity drive.

Were demographics to remain unchanged, the nation's debts would have been wiped out in that time ...

Telegraph  01 Dec 2010

OBR

Bristol nursing home staff ignored dementia sufferers

Perhaps the 'big society' could send some 'workshy layabouts' to help out - what do you think Dave?

The CQC said it inspected the home after a member of staff there raised concerns.

Two inspections were carried out on 13 and 15 October.

Inspectors found bedrooms at Sunnymead had "offensive odours and stained carpets" while morning medication was given to residents too late.

There was also no evidence of training for staff in how to manage wounds and infection.

Ian Biggs, from the CQC, said the care at the home "fell far short of the standards people have a right to expect".

"It is even more disturbing when you consider that many of the residents here are frail, vulnerable people who are the least able to complain about the poor and unhygienic environment.

"We found clear evidence that the home is not maintaining essential standards of cleanliness, with the risk that staff and residents are exposed to healthcare associated infection."

BBC NEWS  26 Nov 2010

Mimosa - where people matter

We know all about caring – and so do the people who live with us.

We hope our website answers some of the questions you have about our homes.

Of course, the best way to get to know us is to visit and meet with residents and staff.

Have a look around and feel the relaxed atmosphere for yourself.

Experience a very special place where people matter.

mimosa healthcare.com 

Care homes 'closed' for poor standards remain open

A million adults to get their own social care budgets

A million adults in need of social care will be given personal budgets to spend on the services they think they need by 2013, the government said today as it published its vision for reform of an issue that caused huge rows before the election.

This will be a fourfold increase on the present 213,000 people who receive such payments under measures introduced by a previous Conservative government in 1996.

The NHS is also to be given £400m over the next four years to fund breaks for family carers – such as holidays or time to pursue a hobby.

The government said local councils should pay the new personal budgets directly to individuals, to allow them to tailor their own care ...

The announcement is part of a process that will lead to a government white paper and legislation for more radical changes.

A government-appointed commission is already looking at ways to better co-ordinate the £83bn on social security, £50bn on NHS care and just £8bn on social care that are spent on the elderly every year.

The most controversial area is likely to be the care of older people who cannot be looked after in their own homes ...

Guardian  16 Nov 2010

Cuts to council budgets threaten care for elderly and disabled

MPs warned that patients with dementia and diabetes risk losing support as a result of savage budget reductions ...

The Local Government Association has warned MPs in a written submission, seen by the Observer, of a looming crisis in adult social care, claiming that an increasing number of councils could be forced to restrict services to those who have "critical" needs.

It blames the cuts but also Britain's ageing population.

Elderly people with conditions such as dementia, Parkinson's and diabetes face losing support in their homes in some areas even if they are unable to "carry out the majority of personal care or domestic routines", such as getting dressed and maintaining personal hygiene ...

The LGA submission says councils will "squeeze [out] every last potential pound" they can to save money through measures such as telecare, where the elderly and disabled are monitored through sensors. But that still won't be enough.

"There are four eligibility bands: critical, substantial, moderate and low… In a future that we know will be characterised by severe funding limitations we may well see an increase in the numbers of councils setting their eligibility level to 'critical' only." ...

oldbluey
30 October 2010 10:27PM

My father is 88 and has vascular dementia. My mother is also very elderly, frail and in poor health.

My two brothers and I did our best to help look after dad at his home for 4 years but eventually his condition deteriorated to the extent that he had to go into a council run care home.

His contribution towards the costs there was around £450 per week and the council took most of his state and occupational pension.

Our local Tory council recently announced the closure of many of their care homes, including the one that dad was in. He developed serious internal bleeding and needed full nursing care so we had to move him to a nursing home and he is now meeting all all of the cost of £780 residential + £108 nursing costs out of his meagre savings.

My mother in law is also 88 and recently had a fall and fractured her hip. The local convalescent homes have all been closed so she is now paying £790 per week in a private residential home.

She has been told that the council / social services are not able to fund any care or support for her when she returns to live alone in her bungalow.

My father worked until he was 70, my mother until she was 72 and my mother in law until she was 69.

They have all more than "paid their way" throughout their lives and are now seeing their small savings rapidly disappearing.

The local Council has turned it's back on these old folks and leaving them to fend for themselves. The local NHS is making it very difficult to obtain funding for continuing care too.

The way that this government and many councils treats it's elderly citizens shames us all.

Guardian  30 Oct 2010

Carers could earn 'credits' towards own future care

A scheme allowing people who help the elderly or disabled to earn time credits for their own care later in life is being considered by ministers, it emerged today.

The Government is examining whether a form of the care credit system, which successfully operates in Japan, could also work in the UK.

It lets volunteer carers "bank" the hours they spend helping out in their personal time account, for use by themselves later in life or for someone else they choose.

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said the Government was looking at ways to "enable communities to take social care responsibilities on for themselves".

Independent  30 Oct 2010

£2bn for elderly care likely to be absorbed by council cost-cutting

The government's extra £2bn in the spending review for caring for the elderly within four years is likely to be swallowed up by the demands placed on local councils to cut costs over the next four years, said charities and experts.

Although the cash infusion was welcomed, the new money will not be ring-fenced in local authority budgets – and will be especially vulnerable at a time when councillors have been asked to find efficiency savings of 7.1% a year.

Half the £2bn will be taken from the NHS's budget, in recognition that it is better to have the elderly in care than in a hospital bed.

A big worry is that the government's extra money amounts to an increase of just 3.3% a year and campaigners say that an ageing population and growing numbers of people with learning disabilities mean spending needs to rise at 4% above inflation just to keep pace with demand ...

Guardian  20 Oct 2010

Elderly care home residents died after suffering 'severe neglect'

It's not a crime, its a matter for a quango: the Nursing and Midwifery Council

Verdicts of natural causes were recorded in all five deaths, but the report concluded they died from causes "considered to be consistent with the effects of severe neglect". Health and social care staff who went into Parkside in July 2009 reported "grave concerns" and the remaining residents were removed.

The home's registration was later cancelled by the CQC and yesterday the watchdog said seven members of staff and the owner of the home had been referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council ...

Guardian  06 Oct 2010

Regulator shuts down 40 care homes or agencies

More than 40 care homes or agencies have closed in the past year after regulatory action by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which will get tougher powers this week ...

Action was taken against 34 care homes and eight agencies that provide care in customers' homes. Alternative care had to be found for around 700 older or disabled people.

Serious flaws among the care homes that have closed include:

• verbal and psychological abuse of residents;

• medicines not being managed safely, leaving people at risk of not receiving vital medication;

• lack of medical and nursing care;

• staff not legally able to work in the country;

• poor sanitary conditions;

• lack of staff training ...

Guardian  29 Sept 2010

Long-term Care

Older People

Elderly 'going hungry on NHS wards'

Elderly people are being left to go hungry on NHS wards, a report said.

Those who enter hospital malnourished can get worse during their stay or become malnourished under the care of NHS staff.

The report from the charity Age UK found almost one in three nurses believe their own relative could enter hospital with nobody noticing they were malnourished.

The study - Still Hungry To Be Heard - builds on previous research which showed some elderly people receive no assistance with meals despite struggling to eat ...

The study found fewer than half of hospitals screen older patients for malnutrition on admission to hospital and only a third screen patients during their stay.

Just 5 per cent screen on discharge, despite evidence showing good nutrition both in and out of hospital helps people get better.

The report found many hospitals are largely ignoring guidelines which say people should be screened.

Independent  30 Aug 2010

Government plans for elderly care branded a 'train crash'

The elderly infirm are victims of the Washington Consensus, article 7 -
"Reduction of public expenditures, particularly social spending"

Elderly people have been left 'waiting for God' by the Government's decision to shelve plans for a comprehensive National Care Service for at least six years, charities said yesterday ...

Labour had originally hoped to fight the forthcoming general election on a radical pledge to establish a comprehensive National Care Service, paid for by elderly people from a range of methods including an inheritance levy.

The plans were shelved at the last minute amid Tory accusations that the party was planning a "death tax," leading to Cabinet fears that the proposal would prove unpopular at the ballot box.

Instead, Mr Burnham announced that a commission to be established during the next Parliament would seek a "consensus" on funding for a comprehensive, compulsory National Care Service "based in need rather than the ability to pay," which would then be put to voters in the election expected in around 2015.

The Health Secretary confirmed that the "death tax" option remained on the table for the review, which would follow an earlier Royal Commission, chaired by Lord Sutherland, which concluded in 1999 and which the Government failed to act on ...

Telegraph  31 Mar 2010

The vulnerable old deserve better than this

The Government’s latest plans for care of the elderly are unfair and unaffordable ...

Frank Leader wrote:

They also want to take the Attendance Allowance of £47.80 per week away from those struggling to cope on their own. It just shows how Caring they really are.

Times  31 Mar 2010

National Care Service: Death tax RIP

Another five-year delay for Labour's social care reforms

Parties clash over cost of social health care plans

Cuts to council budgets threaten care for elderly and disabled

MPs warned that patients with dementia and diabetes risk losing support as a result of savage budget reductions ...

The Local Government Association has warned MPs in a written submission, seen by the Observer, of a looming crisis in adult social care, claiming that an increasing number of councils could be forced to restrict services to those who have "critical" needs.

It blames the cuts but also Britain's ageing population.

Elderly people with conditions such as dementia, Parkinson's and diabetes face losing support in their homes in some areas even if they are unable to "carry out the majority of personal care or domestic routines", such as getting dressed and maintaining personal hygiene ...

The LGA submission says councils will "squeeze [out] every last potential pound" they can to save money through measures such as telecare, where the elderly and disabled are monitored through sensors. But that still won't be enough.

"There are four eligibility bands: critical, substantial, moderate and low… In a future that we know will be characterised by severe funding limitations we may well see an increase in the numbers of councils setting their eligibility level to 'critical' only." ...

oldbluey
30 October 2010 10:27PM

My father is 88 and has vascular dementia. My mother is also very elderly, frail and in poor health.

My two brothers and I did our best to help look after dad at his home for 4 years but eventually his condition deteriorated to the extent that he had to go into a council run care home.

His contribution towards the costs there was around £450 per week and the council took most of his state and occupational pension.

Our local Tory council recently announced the closure of many of their care homes, including the one that dad was in. He developed serious internal bleeding and needed full nursing care so we had to move him to a nursing home and he is now meeting all all of the cost of £780 residential + £108 nursing costs out of his meagre savings.

My mother in law is also 88 and recently had a fall and fractured her hip. The local convalescent homes have all been closed so she is now paying £790 per week in a private residential home.

She has been told that the council / social services are not able to fund any care or support for her when she returns to live alone in her bungalow.

My father worked until he was 70, my mother until she was 72 and my mother in law until she was 69.

They have all more than "paid their way" throughout their lives and are now seeing their small savings rapidly disappearing.

The local Council has turned it's back on these old folks and leaving them to fend for themselves. The local NHS is making it very difficult to obtain funding for continuing care too.

The way that this government and many councils treats it's elderly citizens shames us all.

Guardian  30 Oct 2010    Care of the Elderly    Cutting the Deficit