July 14, 2018

In addition to the Rural HAPPI 4 report the workstreams will also be referring to the report called Designing with Downsizers , the next generation of " downsized homes" for an active third age. The project was called DWELL and the report authors are Adam Park, Friedricke Ziegler and Sarah Wigglesworth / University of Sheffield.  

July 14, 2018

The report of the APPG enquiry into rural housing for the elderly was published on 30th April 2018 and will be a foundation document for the design principles in Willow housing projects.  

March 24, 2018

On 20th March 2018, Jeremy Hunt delivered a speech outining the 7 key principles that will guide the Green Paper due out by the Summer of 2018.

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Below is an extract from the Conclusion of his speech.

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" The Green Paper will be published before the summer and will be framed by thinking on the 7 principles that I have set out today:

• quality and safety embedded in service provision

• whole-person, integrated care with the NHS and social care systems operating as one

• the highest possible control given to those receiving support

• a valued workforce

• better practical support for families and carers

• a sustainable funding model for social care supported by a diverse, vibrant and stable market

• greater security for all – for those born or developing a care need early in life and for those entering old age who do not know what their future care needs may be

Innovation is going to be central to all of these principles: we will not succeed unless the changes we establish embrace the changes in technology and medicine that are profoundly reshaping our world.

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By reforming the system in line with these principles everyone – whatever their age – can be confident in our care and support system. Confident that they will have control, confident that they will have quality care and confident that they will get the support they need from wider society."

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This all sounds very positive and there are also some tantalising mentions of possible solutions. He mentions risk-pooling so perhaps the Government is finally coming round to considering a form of national insurance scheme to fund Long Term Care for the elderly.   Japan, Germany and Singapore all have insurance schemes, introduced many years ago, to help defray the costs. 

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There is also a mention of housing solutions so perhaps we sill see more funds made available  for Extra Care developments.

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Together with the recent announcement of the £98 million fund to develop innovative products and services to support healthy ageing, we are even more excited about the ideas to be generated through the Willow project.  

January 26, 2018

A poll of MPs of all parties, recently commissioned by Independent Age found that two-thirds of MPs ,  53% of Conservative MPs and 83% of Labour MPs) think that their older constituents do not have enough high quality care homes to choose from. 

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Also, 51% of Conservative MPs and 83% of Labur MPs believe that, without action, the quality of the care homes market in their constituency will deteriorate over the next year. 

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Independent Age also sent a Freedom of Information request to local authorities and found that counsils are not routiely taking Care Quality Commission(CQC) inspection results into account when arranging placements. Although local authorities are not legally required to take CQC ratings into account, 66% of MPs agreed that older people who are eligible for residentail care need legal protection preventing them being offered only care homes rated as 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement'

January 10, 2018

Just spreading the word about a new grant available for larger capital projects. 

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The Garfield Weston Foundation 60th Anniversary fund opened last week and potential applicants can receive £30,000 - £150,000 for whole or part of capital projects (eg new buildings or renovations). Detailed below is what they will/will not consider.   The deadline for applications is 30 June and decisions will be made in October 2018; please see their website for more information and guidelines: https://anniversary.garfieldweston.org/weston-anniversary-fund/about-the-fund/

We will consider applications for the following type of

projects:

• New building or extension to an existing building for community use eg new kitchen, meeting room or storage facility.

• Improvements to, or renovation or refurbishment of, an existing building such as installing a toilet and servery in a rural church for community use.

• New fixed playground equipment, climbing walls or multiuse games area in a public playing field.

• Purchase of large or expensive items if it is crucial to your work in supporting local people eg minibus for elderly day care, equipment for a training room, community café fit out etc.

• Purchase of land or property with a minimum of a 25 year lease with a clear community benefit.

We will not consider the following:

• Running costs of your organisation or other areas of your work. You can apply to the Foundation’s Regular Grants programme for these – see garfieldweston.org

• We are only able to fund individual pieces of equipment if they form part of a larger project. For example, we cannot fund the purchase of a new oven but we will consider the refurbishment of a kitchen that serves as a community café.

• Projects costing less than £30,000.

Please feel free to spread the word.

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January 08, 2018

The Institute of Public Care's study and report called A Carer's Life, published in July 2017 begins with this stunning statistic "People who provide unpaid care to disabled, seriously ill and older loved ones save the state £132 billion a year, close to the cost of a second NHS" 

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After conducting focus groups with carers and reviewing other carer surveys the report reaches this conclusion : 

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"During the focus groups many carers recounted stories of ‘reaching the end of their tether’ but being forced to continue their caring role because there was no alternative, no services, little support and no one else to do the job. But is that really all carers can hope for – to survive? Is that really what society wants - an army of carers just trying to survive another day?

Surely, first and foremost carers are people who have rights and dreams. People who ,to be resilient,must be recognised and valued for the experts they are and supported to do the job no one else can do. In a time of austerity can smart commissioners afford to do anything else?"

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This sad state of affairs in so many peoples' lives is borne out in other studies. Carers UK 2016 study found that half of the carers they surveyed expected their own quality of life to be worse in the next year.

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Surely supporting and investing in these people needs to be at the forefront of any sustainable changes to care delivery.  So what can be done?  

January 04, 2018

This extract from the Age Uk Briefing of Health and Care of Older People in England 2017 addresses the disturbing fact that whilst we are living longer, this trend is not matched  by the time we can expect to live without any limitation of our activities. This is known as Disability Free Life Expectancy.

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" Furthermore, while greater longevity overall is still to be welcomed, unfortunately far too many of those extra years are being spent in poor health. It is of great concern that the most recent data presented here point towards more, not less, ill-health and disability in later life. 

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Over the last decade disability free life expectancy (DFLE) increased significantly between 2005-07 and 2010-12, and over that time woman gained an average of 0.5 years of good health and men around 0.4 years. However, since then DFLE has declined for both sexes. Men have lost a shocking 75 per cent of the gains made in the earlier part of the decade, with women close behind losing 60 per cent. As figure 4 shows, in 2005-07 a woman could expect to live another 10.7 years free from disability at 65, this peaked in 2010-12 at 11.2 and has now fallen back to just 10.9. Meanwhile men could have expected 10.2 years free from disability in 2005-07, peaking at 10.6 before declining to 10.3. 

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It has long been the case that increases in life expectancy have outpaced improvements in DFLE, however the gap is now growing faster than before as improvements in life expectancy just about hold their own and past gains in DFLE are eroding. Between 2005-07 and 2012-14 women gained an extra 1.1 years in life expectancy but overall only 0.2 disability-free years. Men gained 1.4 years in life expectancy and ultimately just 0.1 of good health. As a result, more of us are spending more time in later life with multiple long-term conditions, frailty, dementia and social care needs."

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The March 2015 Government Office of Science report Trends in Life Expectancy and Health Expectancy/Carol Jagger/Newcastle University examines this in considerable detail and increasing obesity is considered to be one of the factors for this alarming trend. There are regional inequalities with the North/South divide seemingly apparent here too.   The North appears to be suffering activity limitation comparatively earlier those living in the South, with the South West experiencing freedom from limitation much later into their lives.   

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Finding ways to expand this period in our lives has to be a critical goal for us all. 

Click on the link below to see the Government report mentioned above 

December 06, 2017

This extract from  the recent Centre for Ageing Better report - Room to Improve, shows us that relatively small investments can result in big savings.  We need to start questioning why these seemingly well known facts don't seem to be taken into consideration.  What mechanisms and structures are responsible for preventing actions that seem to make such obvious common sense? So what needs to change? 

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" Research shows that low-cost home modifications can lead to a 26% reduction in falls that need medical treatment and savings of £500 million each year to the NHS and social care services in the UK. Adapting homes could also offset the need for residential care for many. The average Disabled Facilities Grant (used to adapt homes) is £7,000 (one-off payment) compared to the average residential care cost per person of £29,000 per year (Foundations et al, 2015). However, the Sustainability and Transformation Plans produced in 2016 predominantly do not identify housing – apart from residential and nursing homes – as a potential contributor to NHS transformation."

December 20, 2017

Doing Care Differently is the name of a new report by Independent Age that focusses on the fact that we need to get on and change the way we think about care if we are going to have any chance of dealing with the various shortfalls and gaps that exist when we look at the social care picture of the future.IThe report addresses many of the big questions that need answers immediately.  It urges immediate action and we at Willow could not agree more.  Which is why we are trying to bring businesses and organisations together to collaborate and make things happen to make Cornwall a great place for  older people to live.

December 21, 2017

What features older people look for in a retirement community needs to be well understood if developments are to be seen as an attractive option and a lifestyle choice. Retirement Homesearch's Quarter 3 Review 2017  reveals that the five most popular requirements are

•A pleasant location

•Proximity to GPs and hospitals

•A nice neighbourhood

•Security

•Easy access to retail outlets

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These were the responses given in a survey of 1000 adults aged over 50 completed in November 2017.  Click on the button below to see the report