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The quality of care services, whether provided in the home or in a residential setting, is of great importance to older people and is therefore a key focus of our work. Key elements of quality are the promotion of dignity, choice and control and consistently recognising and meeting the needs of older people.

In the 2006 White Paper 'Our Health, Our Care, Our Say', the Government committed to changing the focus of care and health services to the community, moving away from the reliance on institutional and hospital based care. Help the Aged fully supports this policy direction and are leading the way in keeping the Government accountable to this.

Crucial to this agenda is the continued development and support of low-level preventative services as well as innovation in the more intensive forms of home care and new models such as extra-care housing, to more traditional residential care. The key concern must be offering older people choice.

In this section you will find information on our work to improve access to quality care. You will also find information on our efforts to ensure that social care services are adequately funded, and on our position on paying for care.

Help the Aged is working to tackle the problem of elder abuse. More information can be found in the Elder Abuse section under Equality and Rights. For information on our work on human rights and care please visit the Human Rights section under Equality and Rights.

Help the Aged has set up a specific programme of work to improve the quality of work in care homes. To access the website for this programme please visit www.myhomelife.org.uk or look at the Reports section of this page for the materials produced.

The information in this section relates the Charity's lobbying and campaigning work on the issue of social care and paying for care. If you would like practical information on how to get help in obtaining or paying for social care, please visit the main Help the Aged site.

Policy statements

Self-Directed Care (January 2008)
Self-directed support is the future for social care users. The Department of Health has made this a key focus for the development of services since the mid-1990s. In theis policy statement, Help the Aged explores the issues and evidence around personalised budgets and sets out recommendations for the future.

Meeting Care Needs in the Community (October 2007)
Help the Aged policy statement on meeting care needs in the community through health services and local authorities, and their role in actively promoting the increased independence and quality of life in older age.

OfCare (September 2007)
Help the Aged policy position statement on the announced plans to merge the three existing regulators: the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission to form OfCare.

Care Homes and Long Term Care (April 2008)
Help the Aged policy statement on care homes, long-term care needs and older people's choices of quality, cost and availability of care homes that provide equal treatment to all.

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Briefings

Health and Social Care Bill (April 2008)
Parliamentary briefing on the Health and Social Care Bill at the Committee Stages to the House of Lords.

Low Level Social Care (September 2004)
Briefing on the benefits of low level social care in the UK and the need for an increase in provisions to enhance quality of life, maintain independence and reduce other service demands for older people.

Consultation responses

The future regulation of health and adult social care (June 2008) The Help the Aged response to the Department of Health's consultation on the framework for the registration of health and adult social care providers.

Review of Fair Access to Care Services Criteria (May 2008) The Help the Aged response to The Commission for Social Care Inspection's Review of Fair Access to Care Services Criteria - the current system used by councils to determine access to social care services. This response is informed by a small focus group held with older people and by what we know to be happening in the social care system, from reports directly to Help the Aged, and other publicly available research and anecdotal evidence.

Common Assessment Framework (August 2007) The Help the Aged response to the Proposals for the Common Assessment Framework. Help the Aged were members of the Assessment and Care Planning Policy Collaborative set up to help steer the development of the CAF. This was not a public consultation.

Key lines of regulatory assessment (KLORA) (July 2006)

Proposed changes to the Regulatory Framework for Adult Social Care (January 2006)

Proposed Changes to Residential Care Charges (March 2006)

Independence, Well-being and Choice: A Vision for the Future of Social Care for Adults in England (July 2005) Help the Aged response to the Government's Green Paper on social care.

Social Policy Age Information Network (SPAIN) response to consultation on Green Paper on social care (July 2005) Consultation response by the Social Policy Age Information Network (SPAIN) coalition of charities to the Government's Green Paper "Independence, Well-being and Choice: A Vision for the Future of Social Care for Adults in England".

Making Safeguarding Everybody's Business: A Post-Bichard Vetting Scheme (July 2005) Help the Aged response to the proposals to create a centralised vetting and barring scheme for people working with vulnerable adults.

Proposed change to residential care (February 2005) Response to the Department of Health consultation on proposed changes to residential care charges, including information on personal allowances, capital limits and pension credit.

Helping services to change lives (January 2005) Response to Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) on the proposed establishment of Care Services Improvement Partnership.

Learning from complaints (January 2005) Response to the Commission for Social Care Inspection consultation on the second stage of the complaints procedure for social services, focusing on concerns of older people receiving less support from social care services.

An independent voice - CSCI proposals for social services complaints (December 2004) Response to the Commission for Social Care Inspection consultation for the Independent Review Stage of the new social services complaints procedure.

CRB Disclosures on Care Home, Domiciliary Care Agencies and Nurses Agencies Staff (April 2004) Response to the General Social Care Council consultation on the order of registration of social care workers with an emphasis of preventing, detecting and addressing elder abuse.

Code of practice for confidential information (October 2004) Response to the Commission for Social Care Inspection consultation on the code of practice in relation to confidential information of patients.

A New Vision for Adult Social Care (June 2004) Response to Department of Health consultation on a new vision for adult social care, including improved information and access for older people, integration of services and an equal balance between reactive and preventative social care.

A New Vision for Adult Social Care - older people's views (June 2004) Views of the Kensington and Chelsea Pensioners' Forum on adult social care, showing the provision of health and social care services do not reflect the needs of the users.

CRB Disclosures on Care Home, Domiciliary Care Agencies and Nurses Agencies Staff (April 2004)

Proposed Changes to Residential Care Charges from 12 April 2004 (February 2004)

The Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) Scheme 2004

Proposed changes to guidance to the National Assistance Act 1948 (Choice of Accommodation) Directions 1992 (December 2003)

Proposed Changes to Residential Care Charges and Home Care Charges (September 2003)

Criminal Records Bureau Checks on Health and Social Care Staff (July 2003)

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The Challenge of Dignity in Care: Upholding the Rights of the Individual (October 2007) Dignity is a word much used, seldom interpreted and too rarely experienced by older people when they need care. Help the Aged believes the time has come for us all to declare our commitment to reversing this state of affairs. This report is our contribution to what we hope will be a determined and sustained drive to raise standards of care and behaviour. It is our own Dignity Challenge.

Underfunded, undervalued and unfit (March 2007)
A Help the Aged paper calling for a fresh approach to social care for older people in England

My Home Life - Executive Summary (November 2006)
Also available on the Help the Aged website, this is a summary of the full report 'My Home Life, Quality of life in care homes' (2006), published by the Policy Press.

My Home Life Literature review (January 2007) -Updated September 2008>
This preparatory project, designed to inform the larger programme of work, reviews and collates research and experiential evidence from a range of stakeholders about what specific practices or factors can impact upon the quality of life experienced by older people living in care homes.

What Price Care (July 2005)
This paper from the Social Policy on Ageing Information Network (SPAIN), a coalition of charities chaired by Help the Aged, hoped to influence both the Wanless review of the funding of social care and the Government in its deliberations toward the spending review. It followed the 2001 SPAIN paper on the impact of the underfunding of social care for older people.

Articles

A new ‘Experts by Experience’ programme has been announced, where older people employed, trained and supported by Help the Aged work alongside inspectors from the Commission for Social Care. (Policy Update)

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill is due to complete its passage through Parliament very soon. The Bill provides the legislative framework for a new vetting and barring scheme for people who work with children and vulnerable adults. (Policy Update)

Report calls to end means-testing in social care - May 2006
Sir Derek Wanless’ commissioned by health think tank The King’s Fund has published his report on the future of social care in England. (Policy Update)

Damning report published on care services for older people - April 2006
A new report by the Healthcare Commission, Audit Commission and Commission for Social Care Inspection has pointed to serious failings in the delivery of health and care services for older people in England. (Policy Update)

Government releases paper on changes to community health and social care services  (February 2006)
The Department of Health has published its long-awaited new White Paper on community health and social care services. Our Health, Our Care, Our Say: a new direction for community services. (Policy Update)

Social care services fail to meet older people’s needs - January 2006
The Commission for Social Care Inspection’s has published its report The State of Social Care in England 2004–05, the first of the CSCI’s annual reports on progress and developments in social care in England. (Policy Update)

Options paper seeks fairer ways to pay for care (Sep. 2005)
Press release in response to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report on the funding of long-term care.

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