We've moved our blog

Hello all

We've now moved our blog so that it is part of our website http://www.wrvs.org.uk/

You'll find all our posts there, old and new, so why not go to www.wrvs.org.uk/our-impact/blog and leave some feeback, ask us a question, join in the conversation or leave us a comment.

Thanks

Welsh Manifesto

As the political parties gear up for the Welsh Assembly elections on 5^th May, the battle lines on health and social care are already being drawn. Welsh Labour have made a pledge on introducing “Health MOTs” for over-50s. Not wanting to be outdone, Plaid have pledged to introduce Health MOTs for everyone. The Welsh Conservatives are focusing on their pledge to protect NHS spending, whilst the Welsh Lib Dems have focused on personalisation of social care budgets.

It is against this backdrop that WRVS today launch our manifesto for the Welsh Assembly elections. As the First Minister has acknowledged, the fourth administration of the Welsh Assembly has to be about delivery and delivering value for money. This is particularly true within the realm of social services.

A thriving social services framework can empower people, give them independence and support the wider aims of society. As our own research has shown, older people make a vital net contribution towards the Welsh economy – over £1 billion in 2010 (almost £2.9m per day). We have estimated that over-65s could contribute £27 billion towards Wales’ economy over the next twenty years – but for that to happen, social services in Wales must support older people and ensure that they can live active and independent lives.

Our manifesto takes this argument forward, arguing that investment into social services makes sense both economically and socially. We have four elements to the manifesto, each underscored by research evidence, and each making an argument for concrete changes which the Assembly can make to improve the lives of older people in Wales.

1. Preventative Care

Firstly, we want to prevent poor health amongst older people by ensuring that preventative care is provided consistently across Wales. Low-level interventions (provision of social clubs or befriending schemes, for example) allow older people to maintain social networks, and combat loneliness, with all the health benefits that entails. This objective can be very easily achieved by the Assembly Government standardising social services eligibility criteria across Wales – in essence, making sure that people with similar levels of needs receive similar services whether they’re in Anglesey or Aberystwyth, Butetown or Bala. As well as providing consistency, this would also be an opportunity for the Assembly to set the direction of travel – setting the threshold low so that local authorities are clear that preventative care is a priority.

2. Reablement schemes

This links into the second theme of the manifesto, where we suggest that there should be a dedicated fund for schemes which join up health and social care, reducing hospital readmissions and allowing older people to remain in their own homes for longer. Currently, there are some excellent examples of these ‘reablement’ schemes across Wales, helping older people make the transition from hospital to home – but there is no standardised service, and this has led to varying experiences and outcomes. We think there is value in the Assembly providing a dedicated fund to ensure there is a consistently good service across Wales which takes up those good practice examples so they are available to all.

3. Volunteering

The third pillar of the manifesto relates to volunteering. WRVS has around 4,000 volunteers in Wales, all contributing to helping older people in communities and hospitals right across the country. But for the voluntary sector to continue to thrive and grow, its role has to be recognised and nurtured. The recent report on older people’s experiences of hospitals in Wales from the Older People’s Commissioner highlighted exactly this point, recommending that

“Health Boards... recognise the expertise of the third sector and work with them to realise the potential of appropriate, imaginative use of volunteers... It is an area where relatively modest amounts of expenditure can realise benefits of a value far in excess of the funds invested”

We fully agree with that, but volunteering should not just be limited to the public sector. We want to see the Assembly encourage employers to take part in volunteering projects by allowing their employees the time to contribute. The Assembly itself could take a lead by allowing its own staff to take a set number of days per year to get involved with volunteering projects.

4. Community Transport

Fourth (and finally) in our manifesto is the key issue of improving community transport. Our own social impact report showed that our community transport services were rated extremely highly by users because of the difference those services made to their wellbeing. The umbrella group Age Alliance Wales (of which WRVS is a member) has already made it clear in its election manifesto that improving community transport is a key issue for older people in Wales. WRVS wants the Assembly to look at increasing the proportion of the Local Transport Services Grant which must be spent on community transport schemes. This would make a huge difference in reinforcing and strengthening transport services to those people who would otherwise be made increasingly isolated without proper transport provision.

We believe these four pillars represent a strong set of affordable and tangible improvements which the Welsh Assembly could bring forward to improve the lives of older people in Wales. The Assembly has made significant progress on older people’s issues, but if the fourth Assembly is to be about delivery, then it is these sorts of concrete measures which need to be implemented.

Dr. Ed Bridges

Public Affairs Manager, WRVS Wales

Harnessing volunteer power for the health of the 'big society'

CEO of WRVS Lynne Berry has recently written an article for the Society Guardian about how using voluntary organisations to help reform the NHS would be a win-win situation.

She writes, "Whatever else it is, the "big society" is sector neutral. We in the third sector need to acknowledge that it's not all about us. Equally, it's not just about the creation of spin-outs from public bodies and the development of a new commissioning regime. It is about valuing the contribution that citizens make, and adding that into the economic equation.

Take health. The voluntary sector is keen to use its expertise in neighbourhood activism and citizen involvement to increase its role in health services. The NHS wants to embrace the big society too, though not much of last year's white paper on the NHS is concerned with small local enterprises or engaging the voluntary sector, but rather with commissioning at scale and finding substantial savings in primary and hospital care. A few providers may be social enterprises but there is little emphasis on valuing new ways of involving citizens in changing the way services are developed.

However, the principles of the big society – localism, decentralisation, transparency and accountability – are central to the vision of a reformed NHS. Giving power to communities and individuals can bring these ambitions together."

You can read the remainder of this article on the Society Guardian web site here

We would love to hear your thoughts on this issue so you can leave us a comment or contact us via either our Twitter or Facebook pages.

If you want to share this article via Twitter you can do so by clicking here.

Local councils that cut social care will only push up costs in longer term

WRVS today responded to the House of Commons Health Select Committee report’s conclusions that a funding gap remains for providing social care.

The evidence is clear that if local councils do choose to move more older people out of social care support in the next year they will only push up costs in the longer term.

The committee are right to commend the stronger lead that ministers have given to expand joint working between the health service and local government and WRVS will closely monitoring how local decision makers deliver on this objective.

However, it is clear that we need real accountability at local level. We and others will also be asking ministers to report back at a national level on the picture that is emerging across the country.”

Further info on the Health Select Committee here www.parliament.uk/healthcom

Social care: The crunch beckons

We are days away from the Government’s spending review and a potential radical recasting of the provision of social care across England and Wales.

I’ve spoken to many people who feel that the system is not working for them and that their family members fall between hospital care and local council social services. We need to get better at anticipating the health and well being needs of older people, rather than patching individuals up when their health has deteriorated to the extent that they need hospital admission.

I think that a good place to start would be planning services by looking at peoples’ lives as a whole, such as bereavement or the loss of mobility. Many of WRVS’ services provide an ongoing connection with older peoples’ lives and allow us to detect changes in individuals’ mood, physical health or wider circumstances that may impact on their health and well-being weeks or months later. Central to our model of care is the deployment of our volunteers, who use their local insights to make the delivery of this care personalised and sensitive to individual needs and circumstances.

Local decision makers, such as councils and local authorities, now need to make the investment in services and support for people with low care needs, given the growing evidence that these services can make a substantial difference in avoiding or delaying major health problems. The House of Commons Health select committee concluded that the existing system of social care is unfair to carers; too variable and failed to sufficiently prevent or delay ill-health.

There are encouraging signs that ministers may wish to get to grips with this problem . At the Conservative Conference, the Health Secretary announced that the National Health Service (NHS) would be given responsibility for the care of people within thirty days of their discharge from hospital and this was backed by an extra £70 million pounds. The NHS White Paper said that the existing powers to encourage joint working between local authorities and the NHS would be simplified and that local authorities would be given a new duty to promote public health.

But these developments are taking place at the same time as councils are expecting to have to make big cuts in their care budgets. Most councils have already restricted their services for people with critical or substantial care needs and we are already hearing that councils across the country are tightening the criteria they use to decide who gets care.

Some key players within social care world have recognised that major new strategic thinking is required in order to avoid and have talked of a recasting of provision rather than crude attempts at retrenchment. The Local Government Association has called for a range of local decision makers to work more closely together to focus on ‘upstream’ prevention.

I hope that ministers will clearly communicate their level of ambition about the expansion of preventative care to health and social care commissioners. This is what WRVS thinks that ministers could do now:

• the Department of Health could direct the release of further resources from the NHS budget to pay for preventative services, reinforcing the point that better health does not necessarily require NHS delivery
• Ministers could issue stronger central guidance emphasising the value of preventative care services and that these should be a major focus for joint working arrangements
• they could amend the criteria that local authorities use to decide who receive services by specifying that some people need support to prevent them deteriorating later in life.