Mansfield and Warsop MP Ben Bradley yesterday attended the launch of Age UK’s new report on the State of Care for Older People. The report launch took place at an event yesterday afternoon on the House of Commons terrace.
A key theme of the event was how services can best support older people in their own homes, allowing them to be as independent as possible. This is an approach that has been recently adopted by Nottinghamshire County Council, which Ben leads. Ben has also spoken repeatedly in the past on the need for future social care services to focus on ensuring independence and keeping people out of full-time residential homes wherever they can.
Closely linked to the issue of ensuring independence, the report also focussed on the issue of prevention. The more support that is offered to older people to prevent falls and other issues, the less time those individuals have to spend in hospital and using other NHS services. In this sense, it was emphasised that a proper focus on prevention in healthcare can help solve the NHS backlog and issues people are experiencing NHS services.
The event also focussed on a concerted drive to rebuild both primary and community health services. Enhancing the role of services that are based in the communities they serve will allow many older people much greater access to the services that will keep them out of hospital. A key aspect of this was ensuring that unpaid carers have access to the support they need in the community, particularly as a significant portion of unpaid carers are older people.
Commenting, Ben Bradley stated:
‘It was a pleasure to attend Age UK’s event in parliament yesterday afternoon launching their report on the State of Care for Older People. As a council leader with direct responsibility for care services it was fascinating to hear their findings and recommendations to improve future services.’
‘The report’s focus on preventing people needing full-time care and better helping them to be independent in their own homes is one I wholeheartedly agree with. Ensuring older people can be independent for longer is not only hugely beneficial for the individual and their family, but also massively frees up those full-time services, which are currently under huge strain, for those with the most serious issues.’
‘I’m proud to say that in Nottinghamshire we have adopted many of key recommendations in Age UK’s report, particularly on the fact that care services should be focussed on prevention and at-home care. We have also looked to increase our community-based services and have been progressing plans to bring more services closer to the people who use them.’
‘I’d like to thank Age UK for taking the time to come to parliament with their report and for a really interesting discussion on our social care services.’
