Agenda item

The Board received a presentation from Nicola Gregson, Head of Commissioning: Care, Support and Accommodation.

The Council has been working with the NHS and residents of Wiltshire on a major review of the services that are available to older and vulnerable people living in the county. This is called ‘Help to live at Home’. The review aims to improve the experiences of vulnerable adults and carers who require support, whilst ensuring that the changes are sustainable in the future. Some of the points covered were:

·         Bringing together a variety of separate services into one so that a single service is able to meet a wider range of needs.  The sort of services included are personal care in the home, housing support and other services that support people in their homes.

·         Ensuring these services focus on helping people learn or re-learn skills they may have lost as a result of illness, or another event that has resulted in them losing confidence and needing some help.

·         Making even better use of the wide range of community services that there are in Wiltshire.

·         Making sure these services are focused on doing what people want and helping people to live independent and fulfilling lives.

·         Supporting sheltered accommodation schemes.

As a result of this review –

·         Services to older and vulnerable people in Wiltshire will be improved with more people able to access help to help themselves through the provision of information, advice and support from within the wider community and less people dependent upon help from the Council.

·         More people will be able to remain in their own homes with an improved quality of life.

·         Less people will require help for long periods of time – more people will be helped to become independent more quickly.

·         People who need support will receive it at whatever time of the day or night.

·         People will receive the right help, at the right time, in the right place.

·         There will be two service providers for the South West Wiltshire, these are Ridgeway and Somerset Care.

Questions and comments were then taken from the room, these included:

·         The community care assessment paperwork is too complex for some older people to complete on their own. Answer: There is a requirement to carry out an assessment before a service can be provided, the role of the care assessor team is to go out and visit people in their homes to assist them with things like completing the paperwork.

·         Is there a cost for the Telecare system. Answer: For people who are eligible to receive care from Wiltshire Council, the Telecare system is part of their care package, but for others who can afford their own care, they are able to buy into the scheme.

·         There are already several schemes in operation which are similar to the Telecare scheme, how does this differ from those. Answer: There are currently 12 organisations providing Telecare to people across Wiltshire, what we aim to market with the Telecare scheme is that we can offer and make available a service that when triggered by a customer, the call centre will make a decision based on the information that is available to them, on whether to call upon a number of options, such as to request that a doctor, nurse, local named friend/carer, or social worker attend the scene to assist the customer.

·         Is it the intention to develop more call centres across Wiltshire. Answer: There will be a joint health and social care centre in Wiltshire.

·         In Petridge Lane in Mere some residents have set up a scheme where they each look after a couple of elderly neighbours who could have accidents and fall over. The Telecare scheme sounds good however the people called upon to attend the elderly person in their home would not know them like the neighbours do; there is a possibility that that level of connection could be lost. Answer: It is our aim that the organisation will be able to obtain enough information about each individual, this would include what it important to them and who they wished to be contacted during an incident, for example if their neighbour helps them, we can then import that information into their care plan.

·         A lady who ran a care service for older people in Mere asked how the active collaboration through groups and volunteers could be taken forward through the strategy. Answer: Part of the Strategy is to be fully aware of what services are available in each area and to incorporate these services into the overall package. Nicola agreed to facilitate a meeting between the care service provided by the lady and the Council to move forward.