Cheselden Continuing Care Ltd » Care at Home

RCN calls for specialist nursing for all long-term care patients

ericstenson — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:56:44 +0000

The Royal College of Nursing is urging the government to provide funding that will enable all patients with long-term illnesses to receive specialist nursing care. Its call comes shortly after the Prime Minister announced that all cancer patients will receive this care. The RCN wants to extend this to cover other long-term conditions such as Parkinson’s, MS or epilepsy. The College claims that specialist nursing care provided at home could save the NHS up to £220 million per year, as it helps prevent unnecessary hospital admissions and GP home visits. At a time when many specialist nursing positions are under threat due to public spending cutbacks, the RCN wants the government to provide guaranteed funding so that vital services remain available to patients. Chief Executive Dr Peter Carter comments: ‘While the temptation may be to cut or downgrade specialist nursing roles, this would be a false economy which would only add to the growing cost of treating long-term conditions. Specialist nurses are a unique lifeline for patients and families, who are unequivocal in saying that the specialist nurse is the key factor in preserving their quality of life.’

NHS to provide more home care

ericstenson — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:51:26 +0000

Health secretary Andy Burnham has announced plans for the NHS to transfer a growing number of services from hospital to the patient’s home. Treatments such as chemotherapy and kidney dialysis are among those earmarked for a change in setting. The move is seen as part of Labour’s plans to tailor health and social care services around the needs of the individual – increasing patient satisfaction and reducing costs. Existing NHS schemes which aim to support people with long-term conditions in the community rather than in hospital or residential care have already saved the NHS around £2.1 billion. Mr Burnham comments: ‘The time has come for the NHS to make a decisive shift in providing more care out of hospitals and in the patient’s community and home… By making NHS services truly people-centred and ensuring that patients have access to high quality, integrated and efficient community services, the NHS could save up to £2.7bn a year.’

However, Mr Burnham’s announcement came as the charity Age Concern and Help the Aged released new figures which indicate that providing more NHS services at home may not be enough to help older people stay independent. Their survey results reveal that 60% of older people do not think councils give them enough support to help them stay in their own homes. 80% of respondents rely on friends, neighbours and paid carers to help them manage basic tasks such as shopping and cleaning. Charity director Andrew Harrop comments: ‘Our research clearly shows older people are struggling to live independently in their own homes because the system is failing to provide them with an adequate level of care. Older people and their families deserve a care system which enshrines dignity and fairness – it’s time for our politicians to deliver this for them.’

Liberal Democrats announce respite care funding policy

ericstenson — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:44:32 +0000

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled their own plans for using the money set aside for funding the Personal Care at Home Bill. Party leader Nick Clegg announced that they would use the money to pay for respite care for Britain’s ‘hidden army of heroes’ – the five million unpaid carers that save the economy £87 billion every year. Any carer working for more than 50 hours per week, estimated at around one million people, would receive a week’s break every year. The scheme would operate by allocating carers a personal budget which they could use to pay for a week’s holiday, or just have time to themselves at home, whilst knowing that their relatives are receiving proper care in their absence. Addressing the King’s Fund in a speech on 22 February, Mr Clegg described the proposal as a just reward for ‘…some of the most dedicated, hardworking and undervalued’ people in the UK. The new initiative would complement the Carer’s Credit, a new benefit that will be launched in April and will help around 4.7 million carers who work 20 or more hours a week to increase their state pension funds. Carers’ charities have expressed their approval that the Liberal Democrats have chosen to focus on carers when allocating social care funding. However, Imelda Redmond of Carers UK added that ‘We do not want this to be at the expense of the improvements that would be delivered through the Personal Care at Home Bill.’

In his speech, Mr Clegg also called for the government to set up an independent cross-party commission to decide on the future of the UK’s social care system and its funding, commenting that ‘None of the political parties have got a fully-rounded, fully worked-out solution to this huge demographic problem.’

Political row erupts over social care funding

ericstenson — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:24:45 +0000

The growing tensions between the three main political parties around the future of social care funding have erupted into fierce Parliamentary debates and a row that was broadcast live on BBC One’s The Politics Show. Trouble flared after 78 social care leaders wrote an open letter to the Times newspaper, in which they detailed their concerns that Gordon Brown’s plans to provide free home care for 400,000 vulnerable people are ‘…unclear, unfunded and likely to have a significant impact on existing local services, including possible cuts and rises in council tax.’ Although the councillors voice their support for reforming the social care system so that those with the critical care needs receive more help, they criticise the government for raising false expectations in vulnerable people. They also argue that is unrealistic to expect local authorities to fund £250 million of the total £670 million costs of providing free home care, when they are already being asked to make significant efficiency savings. The letter closes by urging the government to ‘…commission urgently an independent review of the (free care) proposals.’

After the letter’s appearance in the Times the issue was raised in Parliament, where Conservative leader David Cameron challenged Gordon Brown to reveal where the funding for the Personal Care at Home Bill will come from. Mr Brown responded by accusing Mr Cameron of taking a ‘u turn on policy ‘– a reference to the fact that the Tories had previously pledged their support to funding free care. It was then revealed that the three main parties had been meeting privately in December 2009 to try to establish common ground for progressing social care reform. They had reached agreement in a number of key areas, but negotiations broke down when the Conservative Shadow Health Secretary refused to accept a compulsory inheritance levy of up to £20,000 as a funding option. There were also disagreements over the reform of certain disability benefits.

Matters came to a head when a recent article in the Guardian newspaper indicated that Labour may be in favour of pursuing the inheritance levy option. The Conservatives immediately responded by calling the levy a ‘death tax’ and circulating a poster showing a gravestone with the accompanying words ‘RIP off’. This move has been roundly condemned for further reducing a serious matter to political point-scoring. The MPs’ behaviour prompted a consortium of 18 charities to write their own letter to the Times, in which they call for the three main parties to put stop squabbling and focus on creating realistic, costed proposals for the future funding of elderly care.

Health secretary Andy Burnham then invited ministers, care providers, local authorities and charities to attend an emergency debate in mid February to try and put negotiations back on track. However, the Shadow Health Minister, Andrew Lansley, refused to attend unless the compulsory inheritance levy was removed as a possible funding option. Mr Lansley stated that the levy is unfair on people who decide to care for their relatives at home instead of moving them to a care home and that it is ‘…at odds with the wider structure of social care reform’. Mr Burnham refused to discount the levy, although he stressed that a variety of compulsory and voluntary options were all open to discussion; he denied Mr Lansley’s accusation that Labour has already secretly made its mind up to implement the ‘death tax.’ Mr Burnham also said that the £20,000 levy would be the maximum payable and the levy would be means-tested. The conference went ahead without the Conservative party being represented. Negotiations are currently underway for another conference to take place, to be organised by the consortium of charities, which the Conservative party is expected to attend.

You can read more about the social care debate and related issues by following the below links to selected news articles:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7021299.ece

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8507521.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/14/tories-accused-over-elderly-care

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8523836.stm

Inheritance levy could be proposed to fund residential care costs

ericstenson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:42:37 +0000

In other news around the White Paper, the Guardian reports that the government is considering a compulsory levy of £20,000 to be charged to an individual’s estate after their death. The money raised would be put into the social care funding ‘pot’ for care home fees. Ministers are currently divided over the scheme, which some fear will prove unpopular with voters if it is confirmed before the election. The scheme, intended to replace the current system whereby many people have to sell their homes to pay for residential care, is supported by a number of organisations including the charity Age Concern and Help the Aged. Its main downside is that the levy would still be payable from the deceased’s estate even if they had received little or no state-funded social care in their lifetime. However, the government hopes that, as well as spreading the cost of social care across the population, the fixed nature of the levy would mean that in most cases, parents could still leave something to their children after their deaths. The new scheme would work in partnership with the Personal Care at Home bill, with the overall aim of enabling more people to be cared for at home whilst ensuring funds are available for residential care if it is needed.

Counsel and Care calls for a fairer care system

ericstenson — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:27:22 +0000

The charity Counsel and Care has called on the government to make sure that the social care reforms set out in the forthcoming White Paper will be accessible, fair for all and properly funded. Speaking in advance of their annual conference, ‘Delivering quality care: fair to everyone, affordable to all’, chief executive Stephen Burke warned the government not to replace care reform with a series of financial measures designed to keep people out of hospital and residential care. Whilst acknowledging that many older people would prefer to be cared for at home, Mr Burke raised concerns about potential isolation and the ‘rushed’ care that some people might receive. He also calls for an integrated approach to social care, commenting that: ‘A new care system must reflect the reality of older people’s and carers’ lives. They don’t just depend on social care but also on better housing, transport, safety and community facilities as well as adequate income. That can only be achieved by housing and health and other partners working closely together with local government.’ With regard to funding the new social care system, the charity recommends that additional free care (such as personal care at home) should be paid for by a care duty levied on estates, which it sees as ‘fair and simple…fairer than losing your home to pay for residential care.’