Free masterclass - Health and wellbeing, a new agenda for an ageing society

With an eye on forthcoming changes to the NHS, this masterclass looks at the role local authorities can play in improving results for older people.

Organised by Local Government Improvement and Development (LGID), the free masterclass takes place on 8 December 2010, at the Midland Hotel in Manchester.

It covers:

• role of public health and health and wellbeing board
• joint commissioning between GP consortia and local authorities
• improving efficiency while protecting outcomes
• engagement of older citizens in identifying needs and planning local services.

For reservations contact Jane Pattullo, telephone: 020 8660 1769, email: lgid@event- x.com .
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Impact of funding squeeze on social care

A discussion paper called "The impact of a tightening fiscal situation on social care for older people" has been published by the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU

The main purpose of the paper is to assess the effects of reduction in funding for care, in a climate of fiscal constraints and likely cuts to social care funding.
See  www.pssru.ac.uk

Telecare and Telehealth Conference

The National Telecare and Telehealth Conference 2010 will take place at the Hilton London Metropole Hotel, from 15 to 17 November.

Hosted by the Telecare Services Association, organisers promise to give you facts, information and ideas to take home and put into action.

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Top tools for independence and wellbeing

Details of tools and support available to help local authorities draw up plans for promoting the independence and wellbeing of older people, is available free of charge from Local Government Improvement and Development (LGID).

Available as a PDF, information has been compiled as part of LGID’s Ageing Well programme. It includes diagnostic tools and improvement options for designing bespoke programmes to assist independence and wellbeing of older citizens.

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Dementia mentors talk straight from the horse’s mouth

Individuals with experience of dementia are being urged to share their knowledge by joining an online mentoring website, as part of the DH Living Well with Dementia scheme.

The department has teamed up with Horsesmouth, a free informal mentoring website, to build the biggest network of online dementia mentors in the country.

Membership is open to sufferers, family members, social and healthcare professionals.

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Health money to be spent on reablement

Money taken from the NHS budget during the comprehensive spending review and given to adult social care is to be spent on reablement services.

The announcement was made by Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, at this year’s annual National Children and Adult Services Conference.

Funding totalling £1 billion will go towards post hospital care and helping people to regain their independence when they return home.

The secretary also announced plans for establishing Health and Wellbeing Boards to ensure individuals receive a seamless service from the NHS and social services.

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Social workers to be given independence

Adult social care workers will be invited to set up independent practices following plans announced by Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, at this year’s National Children and Adult Services Conference.

The scheme already exists in children’s services. Under new measures social workers in adult care will be able to set up their own organisations and contract their services to local authorities.

Pilot projects will be set up to test feasibility of the proposals. The main thrust of the scheme is to:

• give social workers more control over their work

• allow them to spend more time with individuals they care for

• reduce the amount of bureaucracy they deal with

• be more creative with the way they use finances and other resources

• increase job satisfaction.

A letter inviting councils to submit expressions of interest to form Social Work Practices will be posted on the DH website. Councils submitting the most promising proposals will be asked to draw up more detailed plans. Details of councils selected for the pilot scheme will be announced early in the new year.

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Millions reinvested in carers

New measures to support carers were unveiled by Care Services Minister, Paul Burstow, last month.
Over £4 million will be reinvested in projects, ranging from training for health and social care workers, to improving information and making it more easily available.

Funding comes from cancellation of the contract for Caring with Confidence, a scheme for training carers.

New initiatives include a scheme to fund voluntary organisations that make contact and work with carers in the early stages of taking on a caring role for the first time.

Other projects to be funded include a further 200 training places for GPs and practice staff; and £500,000 each for the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, Crossroads Care, and Carers UK.

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Push to speed up personalisation

The DH is urging councils to speed up personalisation of budgets following Audit Commission findings that many authorities are failing to give people their own budgets to spend on social care.

The Commission has found only a few councils in England are on target to offer 30% of eligible service users their own budget by April 2011, but most are not.

In its report, Financial Management of Personal Budgets, the Commission reveals six of the 152 councils are meeting the target.

In one council 60% of eligible people have a budget, while in another the figure is just 13%.

The Commission identifies a number of obstacles faced by local authorities , including the challenge of sorting out exactly how much each individual should receive, changing financial systems to cope with the new way of doing things, providing information to people on how the new system works, and making sure there is a local market in social care where budgets can be spent.

The report has details of the different approaches used to move councils from providing services in the traditional way, to providing personal budgets.

Also included is a self assessment form to help councils review progress and identify areas for improvement.

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Care in the UK season begins

BBC’s Care in the UK 2010 season has started on its You and Yours programme on Radio 4, and will run alongside its Living Longer season on BBC local radio until Friday 3 December.

The series started with a look at the cost of social care and how it might be paid for in the future.

Guest speaker, Andrew Dilnot, chair of the Commission for the Funding of Care and Support, told the BBC the status quo for funding “is not an option”, and expressed his confidence in the commission’s ability to come up with solutions that politicians across the spectrum can support and will “ do what the population as a whole wants to be done.”

The commission was set up by the government earlier this year to come up with options for funding, and has until July 2011 to draw up its recommendations.

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Reporting developments in assistive technology

Details of government backed research into assistive technology can be found in the report Research and development work relating to technology.

Produced annually, it covers research and development work carried out by, or on behalf of, all government departments, and on equipment made to increase the range of activities and independence of disabled people.

It is produced for the Department of Health by the Foundation for Assistive Technology (FAST).

Full details of government funded assistive technology research and development projects can be found on the FAST website.

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Making telehealth mainstream

NHS West Midlands aims to include telehealth as an option for every patient with long term conditions, in their consultations with health or social care professionals.

The authority’s health improvement plan, Investing for Health, includes extending the use of telehealth care and focusing activities on four key areas:

• the Menu of Assistive Technologies – an online directory providing information to commissioners in health and social care on assistive technology and prices

• a skills gap analysis to identify staff training needs and develop appropriate training

• employment of eight project managers to support the work of PCTs and local authorities

• developing an evaluation and commissioning toolkit for commissioners of telehealth, to guide them through each stage of procurement.

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Technology could save councils hundreds of millions

Assistive technology could save health and social care up to £270 million a year according to Local Government Association (LGA) estimates.

The LGA made its forecast following analysis of Europe’s biggest pilot run by Kent County Council, to test the impact of assistive technology on care for people with heart and lung conditions, and diabetes.

The council found it saved £7.5 million annually. This could amount to £270 million if rolled out nationally.

Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr David Rogers, said: “Councils have been the trailblazers with telecare and telehealth and the whole of society is now reaping the benefits.

“Investing in technology like this has been proven to reduce the need for hospital admission, GP referral, home help, day care and residential care. This saves taxpayers’ money in the long term at a time when the demand for adult care is rising and funding is falling.”

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CSED evaluation tool

The Care Services Efficiency Delivery (CSED) programme has produced a toolkit and guidance for evaluating the impact of telecare on the cost and effectiveness of social care and health services.

The Telecare Evaluation Guide provides step by step instructions on how to select appropriate samples for testing, and how to collect and analyse data. It has already been used by several authorities in the region.

Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk

Three more join telecare projects

Sandwell, Coventry and Wolverhampton are set to join the region’s major telecare pilot projects.

The pilots, match funded by the JIP and the councils involved, have been set up to explore the impact of telecare on personalising services for service users, their carers and families, as well as providing efficiencies for local authorities and the health sector.

Already underway are schemes in:

• Dudley – focused on hospital discharge and reablement. Activities include raising awareness and understanding of reablement across health and social care; devel-oping tools and mechanisms for referring patients to reablement services and eval-uating the results. Thirty four people have been referred so far, with £10k invested in telecare equipment. The pilot has been extended for a further three months.

• Birmingham – centred on reduction of night cover for ten service users with learning disabilities. Appropriate equipment has been put in place and demonstrated to families and carers.

• Staffordshire – where different levels of support will be provided to individuals with learning disabilities and service users living in sheltered accommodation, ranging from pill dispensers to promote independence, to Just Checking wireless sensors to monitor individuals’ movements.

• Worcestershire – providing telecare training for health and social care staff working in intermediate care, and promoting independence teams; plus provision of assistive technology as part of care packages.

Sandwell will pilot use of telecare in carrying out virtual visits as part of a care package; Coventry will increase the use of telecare in its Housing with Care scheme; and Wolverhampton will provide telecare across two pilots: one in a high level sheltered housing scheme, and the other for people with learning disabilities

All pilots will be evaluated using the CSED evaluation tool which provides a mechanism for assessing the impact of telecare services used in the pilots.

Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk

Survey shows telecare information could be improved

Information about telecare and assistive technology can be limited and hard to find on the region’s council websites according to the results of a survey commissioned by the JIP.

Telecare lead workers, communication officers, representatives from third sector organisations and social housing, were asked questions about the quality of information available and how easy it is to find.

Responses reveal:

• 49% of local authority websites do not have a dedicated page for telecare products or assistive technology
• 10% of respondents questioned found it easy to find telecare pages on the sites while 41% found it  difficult or failed to locate information
• 31% found a great deal of information on telecare was hidden behind traditional services such as homecare, residential services and day care.

Asked about what they would like to see on the website, respondents said they would want:

• pictures and diagrams of products (92%)
• information downloads including ‘how to’ guides (90%)
• information on where to buy products (95%)
• views of people who have bought a product (92%)
• product and reader reviews to download (95%)

The survey builds on a workshop run with telecare leads from the region, and was planned to identify gaps and barriers to providing information about telecare services and products. Findings will contribute to development of a new telecare information website for the region.

Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk

Telecare website takes shape

A demonstration site for an online telecare portal has been built in response to findings from a JIP survey that shows information on council websites about telecare and assistive technology can be improved.

The portal will be a one stop site for information about assistive technology products and services; their suitability, how they work and where to buy them. Contents will be for the public as well as practitioners, and will allow people to rate or review products. Customers may also be able to buy directly on line.

Next stage of development involves identifying the type and range of products councils want to promote, plus linking the site to suppliers and retailers, and price information across the region.

The portal will be launched at a Cross Midlands by March 2011.

Contact: Nathan Downing, JIP Telecare Lead, mobile: 07970 567332, email:nathan@ndiconsulting.co.uk

Telecare and Telehealth – what is the difference?

Both telecare and telehealth are about helping people to manage their own health and wellbeing while maintaining their independence.

What is Telecare?

• It is a service for vulnerable people with physical disabilities, learning disabilities or other frailties, who need the support of social care or health, to keep them independent in their own homes

• Telecare uses a mix of alarms, sensors and other equipment to monitor individuals and make sure they are safe. For example, sensors can raise a call for help in an emergency such as falls, fires or floods

• It is designed to support carers and people living alone. For example, a bed sensor can raise an alarm if someone gets out of bed and does not return, and it can be combined with an automatic light sensor to turn the lights on when an individual gets out of bed so they can see where they are going

• Telecare can give carers respite and peace of mind

What is telehealth?

• It is a way of caring for people with long term health conditions, helping them to improve their quality of life, prevent avoidable hospital admissions and reduce the frequency of visits to GP surgeries

• Telehealth uses equipment to monitor people’s health in their own home for example; personal monitors for blood pressure, weight or blood oxygen levels

• Readings are automatically transmitted via a phone line to a clinician who can analyse the patient’s condition

• Abnormal readings are picked up and appropriate action is taken.

Details of equipment can be found on the Telecare Services Association (TSA) website.

Welcome

Following our focus on reablement in last month’s bulletin we turn to the closely related issue of telecare and telehealth.

As Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: “We have to maximise the potential of reablement, telecare and other innovations that can dramatically improve people’s lives while also being highly efficient.

“Some local authorities have picked up this challenge, others have not. We need to accelerate this change so that these services and this approach is the norm.”



It’s this principle that underpins the JIP’s telecare support programme which is helping local authorities in the West Midlands expand the scope of telecare to make services more efficient, assist service users to live independently in their own homes, and promote joined up working between health and social care.

We are also spearheading a series of pilot projects in local authorities across the region, to show the impact telecare can have on the cost, quality and the personalisation of services.

We’ve invested in the development of an online one stop telecare information portal. Still at prototype stage, it will eventually carry all the information needed to find out about services, products, where to buy them and how to use them.

We are aware telecare and telehealth still arouses suspicion that personal contact between practitioners and service users will be reduced leading to greater isolation, as well as redundancies and increased workloads for staff left behind.

Ultimately it is just one of the responses to how we, as practitioners in social care and the health services, can care for a rapidly expanding ageing population in a cost effective way and to a high standard.



Paul A Davies
Lead DASS for Telecare
Executive Director of Adult Social
Care and Inclusion
Walsall Metropolitan Borough.