bacc report from social care event 10 january 2013 in bradford's carlisle business centre

7/29/2019 BACC Report from Social Care Event 10 January 2013 in Bradford's Carlisle Business Centre

1/9

1

Care and Support Meeting at Carlisle Business Centre onThursday, 10 January, 2013

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

Carlisle Business Suite was buzzing asmore than 130 people gathered toexchange views and discuss the Care and

Support Bill. The meeting, co-ordinated byBradford Alliance on Community Care, hadbeen called to enable people to putconcerns and questions to Norman Lamb,MP, Minister of State of Care and Supportat the Department of Health.Unfortunately, BACC were informed only24 hours before the event that he was

unable to attend. David Ward MP asked Baroness (Liz) Barker to attend

and she was pleased to be given this opportunity. David Ward MP,Liberal Democrat Bradford East talked about key findings from a reportprepared from research following the formal consultation last year. Inaddition, representatives from local organisations that submitted formalresponses to the consultation had been invited to make shortpresentations outlining key issues.

Phil Cutler, BradfordAlliance on CommunityCare welcomedeveryone and said theturn out showed peopleregarded this issue veryseriously.


2/9

2

SPEAKERS AND SPEECHES

1 David Ward MP (LiberalDemocrat Bradford East) said hewas delighted so many people hadbeen able to attend and that thefuture provision and funding ofsocial care was a key issue. Heexplained that work on the Careand Support Bill was continuing inParliament.He summarised key points from areport prepared following lastyears consultation Reforming Social Care Voices from BradfordEast and said he hoped the voices of Bradford residents are heard inthe national debate that will shape the future of social care in the UK.

The key points included: future funding and the Dilnot proposals,maintenance of Bradfords home care eligibility criteria, review andimprovement of adaptation services, development of personalbudgets, quality standards, combatting isolation amongst older

people and housing representation on the Health and Well-BeingBoard.

2 Keith Nathan, Age UK Bradford said care provision was in crisis!He presented a short report stating the social care system iscareering towards breaking point, starved of funds, with investment

failing to keep pace with the growing needs of agrowing ageing population.

In Bradford, more and more people arediscussing concerns about decliningstandards/pressure on the deliverers of careproducing less help, and not as it is needed bythe client.

He emphasised that the key issue was theurgent need to know . how the Government

plans to put the Dilnot reforms into action and ensure all older people

receive the care and support they need.


3/9

3

3 Paul Smithson, Dementia Shipley,Alzheimers explained that, although Bradfordhad a reasonable record on dementia care and

was increasing the capacity of Memory Clinics,there are still a lot of people in Bradford notreceiving the support they need as they remainundiagnosed.

Interviews, with carers locally, revealed the keyissue was ease of access to services and findingout what is available as they were too busycaring! In addition, concerns included:confidentiality issues, early diagnosis, a beliefthat people with dementia were financiallypenalised for having an illness, a postcodelottery of care, concern that the Bradford moderate level of eligibilitywould be lost if a national set of criteria were adopted. They also feltthe Dilnot recommendations should be implemented, but the limit of35,000 was too high.

4 Anna Jackson, Carers Resource gave a vivid summary on three

key concerns raised in their submission lastyear. Firstly identification and recognition ofcarers was vital to provision of services forcarers. Carers should be listened to they areexpert when caring at home - but often ignoredonce the person they care for is admitted tohospital or another care setting. They must bedifferentiated from paid carers. Secondly, theCarers Assessment feels like a test it should

be aimed at the carera Carers NeedsAssessment may be a better name.Standardisation across local authorities wouldbe welcomed but may be difficult to implement.Thirdly, the Bill draws a distinction betweenservices for the carer and the person they carefor but provides no definition of carer services.

Anna said more details of the submission from Carers Resource,

which is a generic organisation and works with all carers, is available.


4/9

4

5 Janice Simpson, Adult Services, Bradford Metropolitan DistrictCouncil welcomed the opportunity to listen to the views of localpeople and organisations. BDMC had made a submission to theconsultation. She commented that the White Paper reflected a good

many issues and concerns and highlighted what she believed to besome of the positive aspects. These included: the duty on localauthorities to ensure access to preventative services, a focus onoutcomes, a reinforcement of the duty to provide social care allied tothe integration with health care and creation of the Health and Well-Being Boards, the portability of assessments between localauthorities i.e. people would be able to transfer their assessmentswhen they move home, appointment of chief social workers withresponsibility for quality standards, national eligibility criteria andmarket development.

She believed, however, that sustainable funding was the key tosuccessful implementation, social care funding had not kept pace withNHS funding and this needed to be addressed. Also, driving-upquality of care was an important role for statutory services.

6 Paul Anderson, Bradford & District Disabled Peoples Forum saidchanges in benefits and cuts in services are affecting people now! He

had seen this

first hand fromhis work with theForum andContact PeerSupport. Hebelieves truechoice can beachieved only byinvolving people.

It was vitalpeople were ableto say what theyneeded not betold what wasavailable as thismay not beappropriate.


5/9

5

7 Consortium of Ethnic MinoritiesMushtaq Hussain

The Consortia of Ethnic MinorityOrganisations are extremelypleased that this Care andSupport Summit has taken veryproductive steps in listening to thevarious communities who areconcerned about the draft Careand Support Bill.

COEMO has been providing a range of services to ensure that the BMEcommunities are represented in everyday life. The social care needs ofethnic minorities, particularly of the elderly community, has been a majorarea of concern in the district for many years- however very little hasbeen undertaken to fully get to grips of what can be done to understandand address the needs of this specific group.

Our latest investigation and report examined the specific social care

needs of Muslim elders living in the District.

Some of the key findings were

That some Muslim elders are living in isolated and vulnerable situations

Muslim elders have an expectation that their children will look after them,however in practice this is not always happening

Muslim elders are not using the care-homes because of the fact thatcare-homes are not fully adapted to meet their needs, such as prayerfacilities, halal meat and fair treatment.

We would like these issues to be fully examined and evaluated to ensurethat the social needs of such communities remains at the forefront of anydecisions. We do understand that this is an extremely challenging areabut the growing elderly population, particularly in hard-to-reach andsocially excluded communities, needs a clear focus to ensure that they

are able to live in full confidence that they will grow older gracefully andwith their dignity


6/9

6

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

Panel: Baroness (Liz) Barker and Guest

Speakers

A host of questions was posed from peopleand whilst every effort was made to recordthese accurately, please contact BACC ifyou would like to clarify your question orresponse.

Q1: The report is wishy-washy it doesnot adequately reflect the change indemographics within Bradford. Also, combatting loneliness forolder people needs to be pushed up the agenda.

Answer: David Ward MP The report tabled is the Executive Summarythe full report makes points about changes in the demography ofBradford. A copy of the full report is available at/from Davidsconstituency office 460 Killinghall Road, Undercliffe Bradford BD2 4SL

Comment: Baroness Barker She has an affinity with the area, as hermother was from Saltaire. She believes it is impressive that groupshave worked to come together today achieving a consensus aboutwhat is fair and right is very important.

Q2: Norman Lamb MP said recently that carers were puttingparents into care homes instead of facing up to theirresponsibilities how can he justify such an argument?

Answer: Baroness Barker The Minister is not here to answer but itmay be he meant that communities need to be resilient she would goback and pose this question to him.

Q3: It is unclear if a decision has been made about the proposedcap on care home fees, following yesterdays mid-term statementfrom the Prime Minister. Has it happened?

Answer: David Ward MP No. It is hoped a consensus between parties

can be reached. It is unlikely the government will agree to as low a levelas that included in the Dilnot proposals, ie 35,000.


7/9

7

Q4: What about support for young carers?

Answer: Anna Jackson, Carers Resource The current White Paper

makes little reference to young carers, nor parent carers, and this needsaddressing to ensure adequate recognition and support.

Answer: David Ward MP I would agree, it is important that youngcarers are considered in their own right.

Q5: In what way is charging people for social care fair and right?What is the difference to health care?

Answer: Keith Nathan Age UK BradfordAusterity measures are a

concern. Debt after the World War II was twice what it is now relative tothe size of the economy, yet we were able to establish the NHS. Unlessthere is a fundamental will to fund care there is a danger things will getworse. There is a need to establish A National Care Service alongsidethe NHS.

Comment: Combatting the fear of older people about what will happento them is vital. I want care and support when my needs are moderate.I beg politicians to look after people, this country has history of doing so

and is not poor!

Answer: Baroness Barker Technology and innovative and culturalchanges may provide some of the answers to combatting fear andprovide new ways of delivering services..

Q6:Austerity can be solved. We cannot let the bankers continue asthey are. Why cant we increase the money supply to allowinvestments?

Answer: David Ward MP The Vickers Report is addressing some of theexcesses of the banks.

Q7: What about care and funding for working age people? We arebeing penalised for being careful and for being ill. What aboutfunding for younger people?

Answer: Janice Simpson Thepersonalisation agenda may provide

some sort of answer.


8/9

8

Answer: David Ward MP The level of the cap on contributions to longterm care needs to be carefully considered.

Q8: Politics is about challenging decisions. The Liberal Democrats

are in a powerful position, there are choices but this governmenthas made a cynical decision to reduce spending. Why are yousupporting this?

Answer: David Ward MP Yes there are choices and lots of things arebeing looked at, such as whether people living abroad should continueto receive winter fuel payments.

Comment:The numbers are insignificant and why shouldnt they get it ifthey are entitled and have contributed?

Comment: The problem is the profits made by private health and carefirms who pay low wages. Money is going into private care. We are allequal. Banks are running this country.

Comment: I am in receipt of care and am appalled at the level of wagessome paid carers receive, they do not get a living wage nor regularhours and pay. I would like a regular carer not to be at the back of thequeue. Also, I suffer as I used to work and have some savings.

Q9: Regarding the disabled parking blue badge scheme why dopeople who misuse the parking spaces not receive points on theirdriving licence so as to deter this behaviour? Could you bring thisissue to the attention of Parliament?

Q10: We are a small group of people who continued to meetfollowing attendance at a 12 week chronic pain course. We havetried to raise a small amount of funds so we can continue to meet

but have been told we cannot hold such things as raffles as we donot have a license. Why cant we get a small amount of funding tohelp?

Answer:Sue Crowe Bradford Talking Media and Disabled PeoplesForum. I have some information which may help. Please contact meafter the meeting.

Q11: How can you help create better public perception of people on

benefits. The % of fraud is very low but people believe it to be


9/9

9

much higher. Disabled Peoples organisations are reporting anincrease in hate crime. What are you doing about it?

Q12: Im involved in a group called Positive Minds which is about

improving mental health for older people. Concerned that fundingwill be reduced for preventative services which will lead toincreased costs to deal with crisis later on.

Answer: Janice Simpson Prevention and early intervention are reallyimportant. Austerity is causing a massive challenge as the council hasless money to spend. Adult Services are seeking to consult with peopleabout the eligibility threshold to access services, whatever happensthere will still be a need for preventative services. The quality of careparticularly around dignity & respect are fundamental issues.

Q13:People in receipt of housing benefit are being moved out oftheir houses if they are deemed as having too many bedrooms.This is false economy if they are getting support from relatives andfriends nearby but will need paid help if they move. What can bedone?

Answer: Keith Nathan Age UK The so-called bedroom tax excludesolder people but not many disabled people..

Thanks and Close

David Ward MP and Phil Cutler BACC

David thanked everyone for their contribution and emphasised that thiswork was continuing and todays event was not the end of thediscussions.

Phil said the time allotted had gone and Baroness Barker and a numberof others had to leave the meeting. He thanked everyone again forattending and said a report of the day would be available on the BACCwebsite:http://bacc.uk.com/

Details of the White Paper and the Draft Bill including an easy readversion of the white paper can be downloaded from:http://caringforourfuture.dh.gov.uk/
http://bacc.uk.com/http://bacc.uk.com/http://bacc.uk.com/http://caringforourfuture.dh.gov.uk/http://caringforourfuture.dh.gov.uk/http://caringforourfuture.dh.gov.uk/http://bacc.uk.com/

bacc report from social care event 10 january 2013 in bradford's carlisle business centre

Documents