Category Archives: Older care

Adult social care firms struggling for staff due to cuts

June 4, 2015   Carers, Older care, Social care

Adult social care firms are struggling to hire, retain and train staff as a result of cuts to council budgets, a survey of senior officials suggests.

Councils in England are facing a £1.1bn shortfall this year, on top of “almost unendurable” cuts since 2010, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has warned.

Freezing care provider fees to save money was no long sustainable, it said.

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The care home abuse epidemic

February 23, 2015   Carers, Featured Article, Older care

The care home abuse epidemic: Families make 15,000 complaints in just one year (and that’s just a fraction of the true scale)

  • Some 14,888 claims about welfare of residents aged 65 and over in 2013-14
  • And almost a third of these ‘safeguarding referrals’ were upheld
  • Only half of the 152 councils responded to freedom of information requests
  • Families claimed their complaints were often ignored or not taken seriously

By Claire Ellicott for the Daily Mail

Published: 01:03, 23 February 2015 | Updated: 01:04, 23 February 2015

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Lonely elderly flood Silver Line helpline with calls

November 25, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, Older care

In its first year, a free 24-hour UK helpline for the elderly has been inundated with calls about loneliness.

By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online

25 November 2014 Last updated at 01:45

Founded by Esther Rantzen and aided by the Big Lottery Fund, the Silver Line took nearly 300,000 calls, and most were about feeling lonely or isolated.

More than half of callers told the helpline they had nobody else to talk to.

Some also called to report abuse or neglect in their homes or in residential care.

One of the first calls received was from a woman in a care home too afraid to give her name. But she did give the name of the care home, where the residents had been left without food and the heating turned off. The police were informed, and the residents are now safe.

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