Tag Archives: carers

Help for carers across Lancashire

March 18, 2014   Carers

Unpaid carers across Lancashire are being helped to get fit and healthy.

18th March 2014 10.07

 

Lancashire County Council, in partnership with district councils and local leisure trusts, has produced a “passport to leisure” card specifically for carers.

The cards are available to anyone in Lancashire who looks after or provides help to someone with an illness or a disability who couldn’t manage on a day-to-day basis without that additional support.

The aim is to give carers’ health and wellbeing a boost by offering discounts on leisure activities across the county.

Carers can use the card to enjoy reduced charges for activities such as swimming, golf, racquet sports, gym and Zumba.

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Family’s fury as 60 different carers visit in 30 months

March 18, 2014   Carers, Older care, Social care, stroke
An 84-year-old left disabled by a stroke had 60 different home carers in less than three years, her family have revealed.
18th March 2014  08.26

'DIABOLICAL': Stroke patient 84-year-old Audrey Arundel from Ossett. PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe‘DIABOLICAL’: Stroke patient 84-year-old Audrey Arundel from Ossett. PIC: Jonathan Gawthorpe

Audrey Arundel’s daughter and son-in-law eventually demanded a new firm provide her care because of the string of different staff, which they 
branded “diabolical”, and other issues.

A search is now under way for another suitable company after the family had a disagreement with Wakefield Council over her care package.

Mrs Arundel’s son-in-law Malcolm Oates said: “From one company we have 60-odd different carers in two-and-a-half years. It’s diabolical.”

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Shock over mental health trust’s £5m redundancy bill

March 18, 2014   Carers, mental health, Norfolk

Hellesdon Hospital.

Hellesdon Hospital.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014
6:30 AM

The mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk, which is trying to fill hundreds of vacancies, spent more than £5m on redundancy payments last year, it has emerged.

Union officials spoke of their shock after bosses at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) admitted they had gone over their forecasted budget on redundancy costs as part of the organisation’s radical redesign of services.

The NHS trust had budgeted £4.8m for anticipated redundancies as part of its strategy to overhaul services to reduce costs by 20pc by 2016.

However, figures obtained from a Freedom of Information request have revealed that the NHS trust spent a total of £5.5m on 145 redundancies between April and December.

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