Margate - everything it's always been

Spent a great day down in Margate again today - this time I took my two daughters for some time at the seaside. And whilst I'm one of those people who usually loves seaside towns in off season - you know, cold, rainy, overcast - it was just great to drove along the Margate seafront on a hot, sunny day like today and to see the beach and the amusements crowded.

Interesting to see Shaw's Fair next to Droit House - coming from Tunbridge Wells, it was only a week or two ago that the Kent and Sussex Courier ran a front page story on Shaw's being banned by Targetfollow, the new owners of The Pantiles. Anyway, the kids had a go on some rides, then we went off to explore the trampolines (sadly Dad is substantially heavier than the nine stone weight limit).

But it's the shops and the back streets that I love about Margate. Unusual one-off shops that you don't find anywhere else. I love the fact that 'The Gallery', sets aside a whole session for service users from care homes, and that cheek by jowl with the kids and the parents were a small army of elderly people with the carers taking a stroll along the prom, stopping for tea at the excellent hut on the front opposite the station.

And you know what? On the way home, just near Thanet Earth, a squadron of what might have been Tornados performed a mini-airshow over the motorway - rehearsal or did we miss a show today? Maybe someone will tell me.

You know, Margate is everything it's always been - it's fun, it's honest, and it's accessible. And it doesn't deserve the elitist claptrap that some have levelled at it for some years now. To the detractors, I say get in the car and go. You might learn something.

Nobody can say I'm not trying!

Regular readers will recall my fateful meeting with elderly residents from St Philips Court in Sherwood (Won't Be Making That Mistake Again, July 21) where I thought I was helping their accessibility to the local doctor and chemists by arranging a Kent Karrier service - apparently much to their disgust!

What they really wanted, of course, was for the existing Arriva 277 bus service to vary its route to pick them up close to St Philips Church, then drop them off at the existing bus stops along Greggs Wood Road.

I sent yesterday a pile of Kent Karrier leaflets and application forms to the Manager of St Philips Court, and suggested that she made these available to those residents who couldn't be at the previous meeting, but who might find the Kent Karrier option useful. I also sent a wad of timetables and routing details for the Countyliner 279 Sunday service, which you may recall I arranged through Kent County Council when Arriva discontinued their Sunday service back in April of this year.

I also wrote to Arriva yesterday to ask if they would consider varying the 277 route - even if this change were only made to one of the four buses every hour. Time will tell whether I'm successful in my request, but nobody can say I'm not trying!

TeleCare, fire and the risk of injury

I see from the BBC Kent website that a 70 year old woman has been rescued from her sheltered accommodation in Dartford following an accidental fire there last night. Fortunately, she had suffered smoke inhalation and must have been badly shaken, but was otherwise uninjured.

Kent County Council have been pushing to install assistive technologies - TeleCare - across the county. TeleCare is essentially a suite of devices which monitor presence, movement and distress, such as bed sensors, fall detectors, door contacts and so on, linked to a 24 hour monitoring service. I suspect such equipment was not installed in this case, but could have provided valuable early detection.

It reminded me of a case only a year or two ago of an elderly lady with dementia, whose property caught fire. Fortunately the monitoring service actually heard the crackle of the fire through the intercom system in the lady's hall, and were able to get her out of the building without harm.

I dread to think what the outcome might have been without this equipment in place. Isn't it time we revisited our legislation to make sprinkler systems mandatory in new build homes, care settings and public buildings? Surely the cost of installation could be outweighed by insurance savings?

Some days you may as well stay in bed

Some days I just don't understand. Some days you do the very best you can, but still it seems you're out of step. A week ago, Greg Clark MP and I met with the Chief Executive and General Manager of Arriva to discuss bus services in Sherwood. One of the biggest problems for many elderly residents is that, a few years ago the bus route changed, no longer stopping outside the Medical Centre, the Community Centre or the Chemists.

And so it was that yesterday I rushed from a meeting in Tonbridge to be at St Philip's Church in Sherwood for a meeting with residents of St Philip's Court, a warden-assisted residential block in Sandhurst Road. Around twenty five elderly and frail people waited to hear what I had to say.

"I've spoken to the Kent Karrier service" I said "and they'll run a mini bus service which will pick you up from your front door, take you to the Medical Centre, TN2 Centre and Chemists, then wait around and bring you back again". I waited expectantly for the "well done". Nothing.

"That's no good to us" said one lady. "Useless!" said another. One by one, the grand plan I had so carefully put in place was torn to shreds by the very people it was meant to help. I explained it again, but slower - you pay just £5 a year subscription, then the minibus will pick you up from your front door, take you to the shops, coffee with friends, or - in this case - the Medical Centre, leave you for a while then pick you up again.

"That's weird" said a tiny lady next to me. "What a weird idea! It'll never happen". My mouth went dry, my palms began to sweat. "Can I take it then that you don't want me to set this up for you?"

"NO!" said two ladies quite forcefully, and standing up, put on their coats and left. It was the final straw. "Give him a chance" said one chap, but it was no good. My best laid plan lay in tatters. You know, some days it all seems to come together, some days you may as well stay in bed...

Where does that leave their quality of life?

I was pleased to see that Local Government FIRST, a weekly magazine distributed to every elected councillor in the UK, has published an article I wrote for them a week or so ago. The 'opinion piece' - "Tomorrow's Service Users" - looks at the lack of organisation among three in four local authorities in planning for their workforce.

As a result, many of the 'baby boomer' staff in local councils will be eligible for retirement over the next few years, whilst the fall in birth rates over recent years leaves a lack of young applicants for jobs.

I won't repeat the piece in full, but to read it click on this link. Suffice it to say, unless we take positive action to compete with other sectors who all need to bolster their workforce, we simply won't have enough staff to deliver our public services in a generation.

We may even find ourselves incentivising our older workers to take advantage of recent age discrimination legislation and stay at work long after they could retire. But where does that leave their quality of life?

TN2 Community Trust - one year on and getting better every day

I went along to the Annual General Meeting of the TN2 Trust this evening. TN2, you may remember, is the community trust we set up to run the new community centre on Greggs Wood Road. It doesn't seem like a year since we opened the doors of the new building and let local residents take over.

Sadly, the outgoing Chairman, Zoe Jangaard couldn't be there as she's off with a bug at the moment, but Vice Chairman John Beadle read a report in her place. It talked about the extra numbers of people using the centre, the additional groups with which TN2 are working - the FRED Club and Four Walls, both working with disability groups. The new Toddler and Co group for mums, dads and child minders. The football teams who play in the sports hall on Tuesdays and Fridays. The Tea Time Club and the Leisure Group.

Above all, this was a story of local people. People who worked hard and learned new skills. And above all, people who persevere, day after day, to give their community better than it used to have. I congratulate the incoming Chairman, Lynne Weatherley - she's immensely talented and has a tough job ahead as the TN2 Centre takes the next leap towards self-sufficiency.

And - although not mentioned this evening - thanks should go also to Nazeya Hussein and Estelle Grant from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council who have worked really hard to support the residents in this brave new venture.

TN2 Community Trust - one year on and getting better every day.

A partnership win for Sherwood

This morning, I joined Greg Clark MP, local Borough Councillor Ted Jolley and several Sherwood residents at the TN2 Community Centre, to meet with Chief Executive of Arriva South East Heath Williams and General Manager Brian O'Kane.

The purpose of the meeting was to air and resolve some of the long-standing issues over bus services in and around the Sherwood area. Sunday buses, routing patterns, timetabling, accessibility - all were discussed this morning.

Residents' concerns were that bus services no longer ran to Knights Park; that available bus stops for some elderly residents were simply too far from where they lived; and that since local services were re-routed some years ago, there was no bus access to the Medical Centre, the chemist, the TN2 Centre or the local shops - all on Greggs Wood Road. Some residents are having to pay £8 for a taxi to drive them the short distance to their doctor's appointment - clearly a nonsense when buses run just yards away.

The meeting was positive and productive, and Arriva were certainly in listening mode. For KCC's part, I undertook to look into several issues which made Arriva's job a little more difficult. In the spirit of the recently-signed Quality Bus Partnership between Arriva, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Kent County Council, I agreed to try to resolve these issues for the benefit of all.

The good news was the announcement by Arriva that they have ordered three brand new buses for the 277 route, each with dropped access suitable for elderly and disabled passengers. Each bus costs £90,000, and this investment of £270,000 is made that much easier by the fact that Greggs Wood Road will soon be resurfaced and therefore safer for the new buses to travel down.

It was a really useful meeting, and I'm grateful to Greg Clark for organising it. If we all play our part, once again we can deliver a partnership win for Sherwood.

Nothing short of a national scandal

With around four hundred thousand elderly and frail people being looked after in residential care - a figure which by 2031 will almost double to three quarters of a million - the quality and standard of the care provided in our residential homes has never been more critical.

And so it's all the more worrying that a report by the Chief Constables of Cheshire and North Yorkshire to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today highlights the crisis in UK which sees many of the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers being allowed to work in care settings without even the most fundamental criminal records checks.

The problem arises because there is simply no system in place whereby UK authorities can cross-check criminal records in the worker's country of origin. Of almost a quarter of a million migrant workers employed in the British care sector, nearly half of these provide care in the home or residential facilities. The European Union has been trying to set up a reliable system of checks since 2005, when a Directive was agreed where every member state would nominate an oficer to coordinate the sharing of criminal records. Yet to date the Labour Government has only set up pilot schemes, and then only in five UK counties. The new Independent Safeguarding Authority, which will come into being next year will still only flag up whether an individual has offended since coming to this country.

At a time when many of our frail elderly find their eyesight or hearing decreasing by the day, it's difficult enough to understand or be understood by a foreign care worker. That they also can have little or no confidence whether that person has a criminal record is nothing short of a national scandal.

A night with the angels

I was at the Marriott Tudor Park Hotel this evening, for the Kent Adult Social Services Quality Service Awards.

These awards are run every year to honour the staff who, nominated by their colleagues and clients, really "go the extra mile".

Radio Kent's Pat Marsh compered the evening, while Managing Director Oliver Mills and I had the easy job of presenting awards and posing for photographs.

Inevitably, the stories which led to each nomination were amazing, tear-jerking, inspiring and humbling.

Ordinary people performing extraordinary acts. Going the extra mile for the good of those they care for. Away from their job, these special people are also often going home to care for others - parents, brothers, sisters, and so on.

As it turned out, the event ran on and I was not asked to deliver the speech I'd prepared for. But I wasn't upset. It wasn't my evening. It belonged to those very special people without whom tomorrow would be a little less bearable for thousands of frail, elderly and vulnerable Kent residents.

A New Settlement

In the light this week of Gordon Brown finally owning up to a funding crisis in Social Care, I was interviewed by Kent TV on the subject a day or two ago. Entitled "The Ageing Timebomb" - http://www.kenttv.com/programmes.php?CID=27&SCID=63&PID=1269&Title=The+Ageing+Timebomb I discuss the demographics in Kent which will see an extra 60,000 pensioners in the county over the next eight years. I tlak about the complexity of people's needs and the cost of providing the levals of freedom and choice which the Labour Government espouses.

In the second part of the film, you'll see an explanation of TeleHealth and TeleCare initiatives which use new technology to provide freedom and independence to hundreds of people across the county.

Kent has been successful in bidding for funds to extend its TeleCare and TeleHealth programmes, and was recently selected by the Department of Health as one of three national pilot projects, alongside Cornwall and Newham, representing the 'Whole Systems Demonstrator' exemplar of joint working between Social Care and Health.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson has this week announced the start of a six-month consultation on models of funding for health and social care. Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis admitted at a recent event where we spoke form the same platform that "you wouldn't start from here".

Let's just hope that this time the Government are serious. We need a new settlement with Government for health and social care.

The lives of thousands of frail, elderly and vulnerable people depend on it.

Put the people of Kent first

In April of this year, the Government brought in its Concessionary Bus Travel Act. This scheme made provision for free bus travel from 9.30am until 11pm on weekdays, and all day at weekends. Unfortunately, although this scheme allowed national travel it replaced a provision which allowed travel within the local area from 9am. The Act also allowed for local District Councils to "top up" from their own money to allow travel from 9am.

Sadly, in Kent, nobody actually did this, so the elderly and disabled lost thirty minutes of free bus travel.

For many residents, particularly those in rural areas, if they could no longer get the early bus to their GP or hospital appointment, their next bus was in some cases hours later.

But at our Cabinet meeting on Monday of this week, KCC's Cabinet agreed to fund this "golden half hour" at a cost of £150,000 a year, so that the elderly and disabled could once more catch their bus from 9am.

This has put us somewhat out of favour with one or two of the Districts. In my view, we should put internal politics aside and put the people first. Why shouldn't we use the scale of the County Council to put the people of Kent first?

Back to the drawing board

I spoke with a colleague from another authority today who told me about their latest online initiative.

It seems if you live in this local authority area, you can now apply online for your concessionary bus pass - paper application forms would be phased out.

"But" I asked, "isn't it mostly elderly people who would apply for concessionary bus passes? What happens if they don't have a computer?"

My colleague told me that the Council had public access computers in most of their libraries.

But how will these elderly "silver surfers" get to the library to apply for their bus pass, when they don't have a bus pass to get to the library?

Back to the drawing board?

An Impossible Dilemma

I met with a constituent of mine this evening. He wanted to discuss some "problems" with me. Little did I know how difficult the conversation was going to be.

My constituent was in his seventies with a wife of around the same age. In the last few months, she had begun to show signs of dementia. He had immediately tried to have her assessed at a local NHS facility, but this had taken much longer to achieve than he at first thought. The reason for this, NHS staff had told him, was "cutbacks" - in budget, in staffing levels, in capacity.

Now his wife had been assessed, her condition had worsened and he was now told to look for a permanent residential care placement for her. And so the search began - for a residential care home which could handle clients with dementia. Somewhere that could cope with his wife's worsening condition, so she wouldn't be shunted from home to home as her condition became more complex.

And, because their finances exceeded £21,000 excluding property, they would be "self funding", although he did say that the NHS would contribute to the costs if weekly costs were greater than his level of disposable income.

His dilemma? "All the good local homes are full - there's no space anywhere. I don't want to put her miles away. And I'm driving myself mad thinking that - if there is a spare place - maybe that home isn't very good. Why does it have spare places? Why isn't it full up?"

I referred him to some KCC professionals who should be able to help him find a good placement for his wife, as well as our Online Care Directory - you can find this at http://www.kent.gov.uk/SocialCare/adults-and-older-people/residential-and-nursing-care/.

But I suspect none of us would want to have to make the decisions my constituent is having to confront, for all the tea in China. It's an impossible dilemma.

It's the little wins that count

Regular readers of this blog will recall that I campaigned strongly against the Government's stance on television licencing, which penalised frail elderly people just out of hospital and recuperating in intermediate care homes.

It seemed that - even though they may have had a licenced TV set at home, they still had to purchase a TV licence for any set they might have watched whilst in recuperative care. The BBC itself covered the story - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/5051496.stm, as did Radio Four's "You and Yours" along with several national dailies, and every local paper, TV and radio station in Kent.

Kent on Sunday revisited this story last week - http://editions.pagesuite.co.uk//PageSuite3.aspx?page=1&scale=100&height=700&width=1000&editionid=46705&filekey=&path=_PSEDitions/Kos%20Media/Kent%20On%20Sunday%20-%20East%20Kent%20Edition/2008-02-10/ - "Thousands in Fear of TV Licencing Authority".

Today, however, I got an email from the TV Licensing Press Office:

"With reference to your comments in the attached article from Kent on Sunday, we thought you would be interested to know that the TV licensing regulations for care homes have now changed and people no longer need to buy an additional licence to cover them during respite stays in residential care.

"TV Licensing has a duty to enforce the licence fee and apply the law correctly, as we were doing at the time in the 2006 case mentioned. As the article states, we also assured you at the time that we would not prosecute people in the situation described.

"Given that the law has now changed, it is untrue to say that this matter affects "thousands of people" in Kent. TV Licensing has no reason to believe that people in Kent are unduly worried about their TV licence, but should you have evidence to the contrary, we would urge you to contact us, so that we can rectify the situation."

Does that mean "you were right, we're sorry and we've now changed the law"?

As they say, it's the little wins that count.

Heat or food? It's your call

You may recall that last week I told you about a call from Kent on Sunday, who wanted a quote on the astonishing levels of profit from energy companies in general, and British Gas in particular, and how it related to older people in the county.

I was delighted to read a very balanced and informed piece yesterday from Jenna Pudelek - "OAP's charity rails against energy firm's fat cat profits". (Click on the article to the right to read)

Ann Hunter, Chief Officer of Age Concern in Ashford set out the very clear choice confronting many elderly residents. "The concern is they could use the little money they get for heating rather than food because when you're on a limited income you have to look at every penny you get."

What has our society come to? We allow energy providers to become bloated oligarcies, charging ever higher prices, with no compulsion to bring in alternative energy, no market regulation, and largely toothless regulatory processes.

Demography tells us to look forward to higher and higher numbers of elderly and frail people, who deserve to be supported and cared for in their twilight years. And yet what's the choice we present them with?

"Heat or food? It's your call..."

Profits up 500%? What a gas..

Just had a call from Kent on Sunday. Like most right-minded people, they too are disgusted by the news that British Gas, just weeks after hiking their prices by 15%, they have announced profits up 500% on 2006.

They made the point, quite rightly, that the rise in fuel prices would hit older and vulnerable customers worst, and asked for my comment.

With the Government set to begin decommissioning North Sea platforms this year, Britain's domestic supply is fast running out. In the meantime, however, I made the point that Government should step in to regulate this largely monopolistic market.

Local government too, could play its part. I felt it odd that councils should be paying companies to collect and take away domestic waste simply to drop into holes in the ground - particularly when the technology exists to convert this waste into energy. I said "I may be a bit mad, but surely if the seven county councils in the South East got together, we could reprocess this waste on a large enough scale to be feasible, even if we redistributed the fledgling green energy to one specific market - say elderly people."

"I like that quote" said the reporter as she finished our conversation.

What's the betting that the headline will say "KCC Cabinet Member admits to being a bit mad"?

Crimes against older people

In one of the most sickening crimes I've read about in a long time, sisters Alice and Annie Horsman - 100 and 106 years old respectively - have been robbed in a distraction burglary by two men posing a Water Board officials.

The men asked to enter the sisters' house to 'test the water' then stole a large amount of money from the living room.

But it did remind me of two very elderly sisters living in Kent who found it increasingly difficult to climb up their stairs. After much discussion they called in a stairlift company to give them a quote. Satisfied with the price, they had their new stairlift installed. Unfortunately, it stopped working within days, and despite several calls by the sisters, the company absolved itself of any responsibility, leaving the sisters heartbroken and several thousand pounds poorer.

As they could no longer get upstairs to their bedrooms, they took to sleeping in two high-backed dining chairs with blankets pulled up around their necks, and the matter was only resolved when their neighbours reported the matter to Kent Social Services.

My question is - which, if any, of these two undoubted crimes against older people is the more disgraceful? And which is more widely perpetrated?