May 2015
incorporating
no.227 • £4.75
The Number One magazine for the care sector
Association in pledges call to elected MPs
By Dominic Musgrave
CANDIDATES of all the political parties contesting the 2015 general election have been called on by the Registered Nursing Home Association to sign up to five pledges on the care of older people. The RNHA believes the level of priority politicians give to the country’s older citizens says a lot about the kind of society we live in. It wants candidates who succeed in the election to pursue the pledges whether they are in government or in opposition. The RNHA is asking new MPs to: Ensure there are enough nursing homes in the country to meet the needs of older people who need 24hour care by qualified nurses. Involve care providers and service users in planning services for the post-war baby boomer bulge in the over-80s that will come in the 2030s. Create a new Department of Health, Care and Support in order to develop truly integrated care and pooled budgets both nationally and at local level. Put a stop to cuts in public expenditure on services for older people and focusing on what is needed to enable providers to deliver consistently good care; Ensure a level of funding that will enable nursing homes and other
care providers to pay their staff the living wage. As well as an election briefing listing the five pledges, RNHA members around the country will be sending their local candidates a ‘20 key facts about nursing homes’ card to highlight the crucial role they play in looking after some of the UK’s most vulnerable people. “The number of people aged over 85 years old is expected to double in the next 20 years and nearly treble in the next 30 years,” added RNHA chief executive officer Frank Ursell . “Many of them will have health needs that cannot be safely and appropriately met by domiciliary care staff. There will need to be an expansion of the nursing home sector to deal effectively with the rising level of demand.” “According to a National Audit Office report published in 2014, over the five years from 2009/10 to 2013/14 the rates that local authorities pay for care home places increased by five per cent less than the costs the homes were incurring in looking after the older people placed with them. A survey by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services found that 45 per cent of local authorities had not increased their payments to older people’s care homes in line with inflation in 2013/14. That cannot go on.”
Edward is reunited with his wallet
Popular soap actor Alan Halsall, who plays mechanic Tyrone Dobbs in Coronation Street, brought a touch of the cobbles to three Ideal Care homes in the North East. Alan, along with his real life wife actress Lucy-Jo Hudson, best known for her roles as Katy Harris in Coronation Street and Rosie Trevanion in the ITV drama Wild at Heart, were guests of honour at various Coronation Street themed events at Wynyard Woods (Sedgefield), The Maple (Stockton-on-Tees) and Middlesbrough Grange (Ormesby). The actors mingled with residents and their families, signed autographs and had photographs taken. Residents also took part in a raffle to win Coronation Street goodies signed by the pair.
A SERVICE user at Ranc Care Homes’ Romford Care Centre has been reunited with his wallet 65 years after he dropped it at Lambeth Palace. In 1950, Edward Parker lost his wallet behind a bookshelf while he was working there as an electrician. The wallet stayed there until this year when a builder undertaking restoration work finally found it. The wallet contained pictures of family members, invoices, business cards, receipts, union cards, results of a chest X-ray, a national service card and a medical insurance card. Lambeth Palace and the BBC used the medical card to identify two places of residence in north London. From this, Islington Council found details of a marriage between Edward Parker and Constance Butler in 1947. That information revealed that Edward, now aged 89 and suffering with dementia, was at Romford Care Centre.