Gordon Brown has proposed in an address to the Labour Party Conference earlier this week that older people in England and Wales with the 'highest needs' will no longer be means tested if they require personal care in their own home.

Social services departments of local authorities are responsible for arranging help with personal care tasks such as dressing or washing for those individuals they assess as requiring this assistance. Social services can charge individuals for these services and while policies very between different authorities, in many areas anyone with savings over £23,500 will have to pay the full cost of their care. The rules for individuals who need financial help with their care home fees from the local authority are different and are not covered by these proposals.

Ministers hope to implement the scheme in England by mid-2010 but a general election must be also be held by early June.

Source: BBC NEWS

The government has made more money available, through the Warm Front Grant Scheme, for heating and insulation improvements. Grants are available to:

• householders who are aged 60 or over
• disabled people and
• families with children

who own or privately rent their home and are getting a qualifying benefit.

From the 23rd April households connected to the gas grid are now eligible for grants up to £3500, previously £2,700, while those in areas off the gas grid can apply for funding up to £6,000, up from £2,000.

More information about the Warm Front Scheme is available from their website: www.warmfront.co.uk

Communities minister, Baroness Andrews, to-day announced the allocation of £33,000,000 over 2 years from next April to help local councils set up or expand handy person services. The schemes help elderly people by providing mobile staff who will assist with routine maintenance and minor adaptations to help them stay safe and independent at home. Tasks can include fitting grab rails to help people with mobility problems and securing loose stair carpets to prevent falls, and chores, such as clearing gutters that become more hazardous as people get older. Depending on the council policy, the service will be free, or will involve a minimum charge.

Baroness Andrews said it could mean ' the difference between living at home or moving into care'.

EVIDEM is a major new initiative on identifying what works in the care and provision of services for people with dementia or memory problems, which is looking for volunteers to help in reaching their goal.

Ther are five projects that will consider diagnosis; challenging behaviour; incontinence at home; enhancing end of life care; and practical guidance on the use of the law about making decisions for people who might be unable to do so themselves (the Mental Capacity Act 2005).  EVIDEM is seeking volunteers who live in North London, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.  They may live in any setting.  If you, a person you are looking after, or a friend or family member are currently experiencing memory problems or have been diagnosed with dementia and want to consider volunteering to take part, please contact one of the Programme Managers by E-mail or telephone:
David Lowery: d.lowery@nhs.net / 020 3214 5889 or
Jane Wilcock: j.wilcock@pcps.ucl.ac.uk / 020 7830 2239

They will be pleased to answer any questions you may have that will help you to decide if you want to be involved in this important research.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has recently published a study “Safeguarding adults” on the effectiveness of local authorities’ arrangements to safeguard adults, including elderly people, from abuse and on the support they offer to those who experience abuse. CSCI’s report found: 

• The effectiveness of arrangements to help prevent abuse and provide support for people who have been abused varies within and between local authorities’ areas.  It also varies within individual care services. There are councils showing active leadership and building strong strategic partnerships. However, there is a gap between the best and worst performers.
• More needs to be done to ensure people who direct their own support are safeguarded.  
• The evidence suggests that if a council is performing well safeguarding its adults a greater number of care services in its area are also performing well. There is an also a positive relationship between a care service’s overall CSCI quality rating and its ability to safeguard adults.

CSCI is the government body responsible for regulating and inspecting all social care providers - whether public, commercial or not for profit. They are also responsible for assessing the performance of local councils’ social services departments. Their press release can be viewed at http://www.csci.org.uk/about_us/press_releases/people_experience.aspx. The full report can be downloaded free from http://www.csci.org.uk/PDF/safeguard%5b1%5d.pdf

 A recent Ombudsman report which can be found in their News section has found maladministration by a local authority  in relation to a number of issues in their provision of care services to an elderly man after his wife died. 

http://www.lgo.org.uk/news/info.php?refnum=262&startnum=5  

The report  states that initially the Council provided a package of  care at home but there were serious concerns about the quality of care and the Council failed to ensure that the agency was complying with the care plan. It goes on to explain that the client was subsequently admitted to hospital and on his discharge the Council failed to undertake a proper assessment of his needs and he was placed in a care home against both his and his family's wishes.

Finally, it states that while the person was in the home the Council assessed him as a permanent rather than a temporary resident and consequently made excessive charges.The Ombudsman found maladministration causing injustice on a number of counts and the Council agreed to:

• improve its monitoring of home care packages
• improve its assessments of residents on discharge from the hospital
• refund the excessive residential care charges of £11,800.64 levied on the basis that the person was a permanent rather than a temporary resident
• pay compensation of £600 to the person and £200 to the family for the avoidable distress and inconvenience caused, and £200 for time and trouble to the family member pursuing the complaint.

EAC's Advice Line provides advice and information on care at home and care in care homes, rights to assessment and care home funding, and can be contacted on 020 7820 1343.