Care & Repair doctoral research project

The Care & Repair Swansea University Doctoral Research project is now live! Given many of the headline messages from social policy and Welsh Government strategy relating to housing, health, social services and primary care, around a community-based social model of healthcare and public service integration, this is an exciting opportunity. Detailed work around our main activity as a frontline, home-visiting casework service will undoubtedly trace a bigger community footprint, which should be useful for policy development at a crucial stage in the debate around future-proofing public services.

Care & Repair agencies provide a unique and standard approach to the housing, environmental and living circumstances of older people. It is a blended approach, combining social care and technical housing fabric to provide a person-centred and problem-led approach. The older person receives an individually tailored, bespoke service. This has always appeared to work well. However, in a world of integrated approaches, shrinking public investment and competitive approaches, does it still work? ‘Bespoke’ is an old-fashioned and possibly hackneyed term, so are we becoming an old-fashioned service? In a fast-moving world, where the old artisan and craft skills are disappearing, will our approach end up as ‘time consuming’ and ‘over promising and under delivering’? Living under the big community tent and marshalled by statutory partners, are we a pivotal hub and close to the tent pole, or are we a cheap resource, disappearing at the edge of the camp like a flapping guy-rope?

My take on our ‘big offer’ is that we are the most modern of public sector organisations, anticipating important strategic trends and in the vanguard of change. We are defined by our partnerships and our collaborative efforts - in the best sense, ‘co-production’ in action. Seeking to build service capacity, we were a ‘social enterprise’ brand before the social entrepreneurs moved in. If you are looking to define prevention, we are responding to the real challenges older people face before they escalate into crises. If we deconstruct the pseudo-sociological concepts of ‘social model’-speak, we are a plain-talking, honest and accessible community delivery model. For the 12,000 older people we visit in their homes each year, we are a future-proofing service, keeping them ‘ahead of the curve’ rather than ‘stuck in the past’. I would say that, wouldn’t I? What do you think? This is an opportunity to say what you want as research student Joanna Wolton begins her investigations.

Neil Williams
Head of Agency Performance and Funding, Care & Repair Cymru

At this early stage, please leave a comment on the blog if you'd like any further information. 

Crisis in Accident and Emergency Services

On May 15th on Radio 4, Jeremy Hunt suggested that one of the main reasons for the crisis in hospitals’ A&E services is the ageing population. Making them another marginalised group to ‘feed’ deficit reduction again contributes to a divided ‘us and them’ society and a blame culture. Older people are becoming a target for ageist subliminal messages.

Last week’s launch of ‘The Strategy for Older People (Phase 3)’ suggests it’s time to champion the generations that fought for our country and built its wealth. MPs salaries are too easily earned through crass strategies rather than solving complex problems and rewarding citizens’ contributions. If prominent people can perpetuate ageist myths then they must be challenged!

Ageing isn’t restricted to the old. It is something that is necessitated by birth, and an age-positive approach from a co-operative society should promote opportunity, value positive contributions and encourage planning for life. We must recognise that:

• The majority of older people are economically active and net contributors of wealth to local communities
• They provide the social glue as a cohort of ‘unpaid carers’ that save our care services millions annually
• They contribute to governance in the public sector
• They are the volunteers that make our local services work

The facts that appear to substantiate an ageing crisis are in fact not a surprise to any one. In fact, the real surprise is that our politicians are surprised at all. Demographic modelling is not new:

In his ‘Adding Life to Years’ publication, John Osmond (Institute of Welsh Affairs) says that in the next 10 years, the number of people aged over 65 in Wales will increase by about 5%, an increase of 130,000, and the number aged over 85 will increase by 30,000. In the next 60 years, the number of people in the UK aged over 65 will more than triple from 4.6 million to 15.4 million, and in that same timescale, according to the UK Government’s actuary department, the number of people aged 100 will increase from 10,000 to 1 million.

Thus, the real problems emerge:

• Shouldn’t successive governments have prioritised the need to plan for an ageing society?
• The funding crisis is a result of reactive approaches and the absence of preventative investment
• We don’t plan to resource community services in order to relieve acute services 
• Funding decisions are historic not targeted and intelligent
• Older people themselves are enablers and ‘social capital’

It's not too late to be positive about ageing. In fact, it's our only hope!

Neil Williams
Head of Agency Performance and Funding, Care & Repair Cymru