Category Archives: Older care

“Too big to fail”? Care home closures and the price of market failure

July 17, 2013   Carers, DOH, Older care

By the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, 15th July 2013

The real human costs of market failure and care home closure for the residents and their families

As the Competition Commission points out in the guidance which it is uses when conducting a market investigation, truly effective markets are characterised by ‘uncertainty, turbulence and change’.

And nowhere has market turbulence been more keenly felt than in the care home sector for older people, which has been subject to the vicissitudes of the market for the past 20 years.  Most recently, the care home chain Southern Cross went into administration as a result of an unsustainable debt financing model.  As the care homes owned by Southern Cross were looking after 31, 000 people, the government was faced with the prospect that nearly 9% of all the available care beds in England would disappear in one fell swoop.

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Neighbourhood watch groups could help with elderly care

July 15, 2013   Carers, disability, Older care

Neighbourhood watch groups in England could provide companionship and practical help for pensioners living alone, under an idea being considered.

15 July 2013 Last updated at 11:35

 Ministers say more collaboration is needed between the state and voluntary groups

Social care minister Norman Lamb said many older people were living “very lonely lives”, without family support.

While professional care remained vital, something extra was needed, he said.

The “principle of neighbourliness” could be extended to address the “extraordinary challenge” presented by an ageing society, he told the BBC.

There are 173,000 neighbourhood watch groups in England and Wales, a scheme which started in the 1980s to encourage local residents to report suspicious behaviour in their area and to help prevent burglaries.

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Dementia gran 'kidnapped' by social services and family charged £1,300

July 11, 2013   Carers, Older care

“It has been hellish.”

Thursday, July 11, 2013
Brentwood Gazette

By Matt Reason

AN 85-YEAR-OLD dementia sufferer was “kidnapped” by Essex County Council’s social services department – which then charged her daughter and grandson £1,300 for the unnecessary care costs she incurred.

Brentwood resident Martin Harlow and his mother Marian Harlow fought for nine days to bring Enid Parkinson home after she was taken into care – only achieving their goal after the intervention of local government secretary Eric Pickles.

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    Concerned: Martin Harlow with his grandma Enid Parkinson at her new home at Leonard Lodge, Hutton

Mr Harlow, 36, who works for a hotel booking firm, said of his grandmother’s ordeal: “It has been hellish.

“My mum has been diagnosed with anxiety and I felt sick with stress.”

Mr Harlow said his grandmother, who lives with his mum in Frayes Chase, Ongar, was taken into respite care at Ashlar House, in Epping.

He continued: “She didn’t come home so my mother phoned the cab company who told her she wasn’t coming.

“My mother phoned the care home and discovered that there had been an allegation of abuse and that social services had taken her into care in Loughton.

“The allegation was simply, ‘my daughter shouted at me’ and social services hadn’t phoned to tell us.”

Mr Harlow, who is also a special constable, added: “My mother has Power of Attorney on Grandma’s affairs and finances and they were spending money without permission.

“I was away on business until Thursday and I came home to the news that my grandma had been taken away.

“I went to visit her at the Loughton care home and she was confused, claiming to have been there for a couple of weeks.

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