· On the 2nd of June I attended the launch of National Care Homes week organised by Caring Business. The launch was held at the Marriott Hotel in Central London. There were many familiar faces at the launch and a panel of speakers including Ivan Lewis MP, Stephen O’Brien MP, Norman Lamb MP and Dame Denise Platt.
I know that many members of NCA held events during the week and raised awareness of the excellent care provided in care homes.
· On the 3rd of June I met with Yoonoos Jeetoo who is a member of the Board of Directors of NCA. Yoonoos provides care for younger adults with a learning disability and he and I met to discuss the number of issues that many providers of services for younger adults are currently facing. Many of these issues of course relate to funding. We also hear from members providing these specialist services about the pressures being placed on them to deregister as a provider of care in a home and become a provider of supported living services.
Yoonoos and I agreed to organise a seminar in September aimed at bringing together a group of 50 providers of services to younger adults to discuss the challenges that are being faced by providers, whether this could lead to a detrimental impact for service users and if necessary to agree an action plan to raise public awareness of the impact of public policy on care for service users with a learning disability.
If you are interested in attending the seminar please contact NCA on 02078317090.
· On 5 June I attended and spoke at the conference of the Kent Care Homes Association held in Ashford. I have been invited to speak at this conference every year for the last 5 or 6 years and it is a date that I very much enjoy especially as I meet old friends as well as meeting people I have never met before. As always this year’s conference was excellent and well attended with an audience of people keen to learn about the latest developments from a wide variety of speakers.
· On 6 June I attended the first meeting of the CSCI National Quality Board. This Board which I was pleased to be invited to be a member of reviews the outcomes of the quality ratings system launched by CSCI this year. Part of the remit of the Board is to look at statistics relating to star ratings and to review the outcomes of appeals etc. I enjoyed the first meeting at which the majority of attendees were from CSCI. I robustly put forward the view that there may be concerns for smaller providers about complaining or appealing a decision of CSCI due to concerns about what might happen next.
We did agree to consider this at a future meeting so I would be very interested to hear member’s views about (in confidence of course).
· On 9 June I was invited to lunch by Jeremy Huband of the Royal Bank of Scotland at their corporate dining room at Childs Bank in the Strand. Banks are renowned for their hospitality but on this occasion I had to be restrained as I was recording an interview with BBC Radio a little later. The programme was File on 4 and was about the use of drugs in care of people with dementia and was broadcast on a Sunday morning. I have been amazed at the number of people who heard the programme.
My position on this subject is quite clear, care homes handle medication but it is Doctors that prescribe medication and the ongoing criticism of care homes in relation to drugs and dementia care is I believe unfair. It is Doctors that should be questioned about prescribing practices.
· On 11 June NCA held its last regional seminar of the tear in Northampton. Although it was a relatively small gathering I know that we all really enjoyed the day working with a group of well informed home owners and managers.
· On 12 June I attended the 40th anniversary reception of RNHA. I was really pleased to have been invited and to have the chance to meet so many old friends. Congratulations to RNHA!
· On 18 June I had a meeting with Darren Lockley and his colleague from Electrolux. As I am sure you know one of the Conditions of Registration within the new Health and Social Care Bill will relate to the prevention of infection and Darren and I had a first exploratory meeting to discuss how we and other colleagues can work together to help our members to meet this condition of registration. I will keep you informed of the progress we make.
· On 22 and 23 June I visited with representatives of the NCA affiliated Association in Bolton and on the 23rd spoke at a conference organised by the local authority about Dignity in Care. Providers, service user representatives, the Council and the PCT have joined together to do a great deal of work to ensure dignity fro service users in receipt of both health and social care.
National Care Association Logo
Friday, July 11, 2008
May 2008 Update
A lot of our time lately has been taken up with organising National Care Association’s Annual Conference and Exhibition which is being held at the Thistle Hotel in Brighton on 29 and 30 October. Everything feels very right about this venue which is on the sea front and the hotel facilities are very good including the pool!
Cheryl, Claire and I have had to go back to the hotel more than once to identify more exhibition space due to the high level of interest in the event from commercial organisations.
We have just heard that the Minister for Social Care, Ivan Lewis MP has agreed to speak at Conference for the third successive year. We are of course delighted because, with so much going on particularly with the new Care Quality Commission due to become operational in 2009, we want to hear his latest thinking.
I returned on 15 May from a week’s holiday in Spain. I went with a friend to practice our newly learnt golfing skills but it rained most of the time we were away while the UK basked in a heat wave so it’s good to be back!
Today Nadra, Peter Grose our solicitor and I went to meet with the Chairman of the Houses of Parliament Joint Human Rights Committee, Andrew Dismore MP. This was not an easy meeting and certainly Mr Dismore and ourselves whilst wanting the best for people in receipt of social care are a very long way apart on how that can be achieved.
On 20 May 2008 I flew to Vienna with Nadra and Christine Ferrier to attend the second European Conference of the International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (IAHSA). NCA is a member of IAHSA and as always all three of us really enjoyed the conference but it is the contact with people from other Countries that is the real success of such Conferences.
Nadra and I had attended the first European Conference in 2006 and this year it was notable that there were many more delegates from the Eastern European Countries. Learning of the many challenges that they face certainly puts into perspective developments here in the UK.
A Date for Your Diary. The next international conference of IAHSA will be in London on 19 - 22 July 2009. Both Nadra and I are part of the organising committee and it is going to be a huge event with more than 1000 delegates expected.
Cheryl, Claire and I have had to go back to the hotel more than once to identify more exhibition space due to the high level of interest in the event from commercial organisations.
We have just heard that the Minister for Social Care, Ivan Lewis MP has agreed to speak at Conference for the third successive year. We are of course delighted because, with so much going on particularly with the new Care Quality Commission due to become operational in 2009, we want to hear his latest thinking.
I returned on 15 May from a week’s holiday in Spain. I went with a friend to practice our newly learnt golfing skills but it rained most of the time we were away while the UK basked in a heat wave so it’s good to be back!
Today Nadra, Peter Grose our solicitor and I went to meet with the Chairman of the Houses of Parliament Joint Human Rights Committee, Andrew Dismore MP. This was not an easy meeting and certainly Mr Dismore and ourselves whilst wanting the best for people in receipt of social care are a very long way apart on how that can be achieved.
On 20 May 2008 I flew to Vienna with Nadra and Christine Ferrier to attend the second European Conference of the International Association of Homes and Services for the Ageing (IAHSA). NCA is a member of IAHSA and as always all three of us really enjoyed the conference but it is the contact with people from other Countries that is the real success of such Conferences.
Nadra and I had attended the first European Conference in 2006 and this year it was notable that there were many more delegates from the Eastern European Countries. Learning of the many challenges that they face certainly puts into perspective developments here in the UK.
A Date for Your Diary. The next international conference of IAHSA will be in London on 19 - 22 July 2009. Both Nadra and I are part of the organising committee and it is going to be a huge event with more than 1000 delegates expected.
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