Care review welcomed

Jan 30 2008 by Audrey Barton, The Journal

THE family of an elderly woman forced to find care for her and sell her home to pay for it has welcomed what they call a long overdue Government inquiry into a postcode lottery of services.

Dorothy Bagnall, 86, formerly of Roker Avenue, Whitley Bay, is now in a care home as she suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.

A former champion of the elderly, she was awarded an MBE for her services but her family has experienced first-hand how older people are treated under the current care system.

They were forced to find a home to care for her themselves as her needs were not deemed severe enough for her to enter residential care.

Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis admitted inconsistencies yesterday in services across the country and said there will be a fundamental review of the system for determining which frail and infirm people qualify for care in England.

He stopped short of announcing a review of the means-testing system which leaves many elderly forced to pay for their homes to fund their own care.

However, he will ask the Commission for Social Care Inspection to conduct an independent review of the eligibility tests for care treatments. The inquiry will also look into how people can be helped to navigate social care services and secure early intervention.

The minister is said to want the inquiry to report by the autumn in time to influence a green paper on the future of funding for social care.

Mrs Bagnall’s son Stuart has been through the traumatic experience of putting both of his parents into care. His mother went into Cragg Hall Care Home in Jesmond, Newcastle, last March and his father Wallace, who also had dementia, was in a home for five years before his death.

Mr Bagnall said: “There is a postcode lottery and anything that standardises that has got to be good.

“I wanted my mother to be in the correct place for her needs and we felt we weren’t being offered that.

“We had to make our own arrangements for her to go into care as her package was only for care at home and we felt she was in danger because of her condition.”

The family were also left to navigate their way through a maze of confusing information as Mrs Bagnall falls into the self-funder category as her assets are above £21,500.

Mr Bagnall added: “It is all very confusing and people in different parts of the country might have had different criteria for care, or something else paid, or a different contribution level. It is a difficult time in anyone’s life so I am encouraged by this review.”

Mr Lewis’s remarks came as a report published yesterday by the Commission for Social Care Inspection showed 73% of local authorities plan to refuse care to people whose needs are not considered to be substantial or critical.

This excludes people with moderate needs who could not carry out daily routines such as getting up in the morning, bathing and doing the washing up.

Mr Lewis said the Government would this year announce a new deal for carers and that there was a big transformation programme beginning in every local authority area. He said there would also be the first ever national Alzheimer’s strategy.

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Investment in care a 'very high priority'

DURHAM County Council social care chiefs said yesterday they were continuing to buck a national trend which Social Care Minister Ivan Lewis said left thousands of vulnerable older people trapped in their homes without the help and support they needed.

Mr Lewis said the provision of adequate care had become “a postcode lottery”, as more councils imposed tougher tests to see if people qualified for local authority care. That, he said, contravened the Government’s strategy for early intervention to stop people’s needs from deteriorating.

But Coun Morris Nicholls, Durham County Council’s Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services, said that was far removed from the position in County Durham, where the council’s continuing investment in caring for vulnerable older people remained a very high priority.

“While some other councils are looking for ways to ration care and support for frail and infirm people living in their own homes, we are looking for ways of bolstering the services we provide them and pumping more money into this area of our budget,” he said.

Later this week members of the Council’s Cabinet will consider plans to spend an additional £4.7m on adult and community services next year, including an extra £850,000 to increase the council’s capacity to provide care and support to enable growing numbers of older people remain in their own homes.