Sheffield Local Involvement Network

More than 60 people attended our workshop on November 4 to launch the new Action Group looking at Care Homes for Older People. The aims of the event were to bring together key stakeholders and LINk members to understand the issues in more detail and to decide the Action Group's priorities. The Action Group is looking at the quality of care offered and at how older people can make choices and have involvement in this area.

The event brought together people from voluntary sector groups, Sheffield City Council, NHS Sheffield, care home staff and members of the public to share information, listen to each other's views and jointly agree the issues for the Action Group to address. What became clear during the day is that Sheffield has a lot of good homes providing excellent care. There are also some innovative projects around to boost the activity levels and give people the best possible quality of life. However, there are also some significant issues and a great deal of public concern about this whole area. 

The day started with Anne Ashby, Action Group Chair, outlining the aims of the day. She explained how the LINk had used one of its legal powers to request information about care homes from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), regulators of care homes, Sheffield City Council and NHS Sheffield. The first three talks were the responses to these giving those present an understanding of how the system works in Sheffield.

Hilary Hull, Sheffield City Council's Quality in Care Homes Project Lead was the first guest speaker and said that Sheffield has a total of 93 residential homes offering more than 3000 beds. Approximately 30-40% of these are funded by SCC and the occupancy rate is around 91%. She also said that according to the CQC star rating for care homes, Sheffield is above the national average and has the best quality provision in Yorkshire and Humberside. She also talked about the huge range of health conditions the homes must cope with and some of the complexity around assessment and funding. She was followed by Debbie Morton from NHS Sheffield, who talked about the health side of residential care and especially the criteria for fully funded healthcare.

In the afternoon, three speakers moved the meeting away from statutory requirements to real examples in Sheffield. Trudy Roberts, Care Homes Team Manager from NHS Sheffield Community Services started by talking about training of care home staff and how standards have been improving. She was joined by Helena Lee, a specialist nurse who looks at 'activities' or occupations as she prefers to call them for older poeple in residential care. She shared some great stories and gave examples of the work the team do. Julie Wright (above) who manages a care home completed this session by giving practical examples of how they work with people, the kinds of activities on offer and some of the challenges facing residential homes.

The day was interspersed with discussion sessions and with opportunities for people to add their views to comment boards. One notable comment reinforced the positive aspects of care and read ''since my 92-year old father-in-law went into a home, he is happier and more relaxed than he has been in years". The table discussions looked at the areas for the Action Group to prioritise and at how older people can be supported to make informed choices.

The final set of speakers were Debbie Price from Age Concern, Nicola Jacobson from the Alzheimer's Society and Jenny Duckworth from Sheffield Carers Centre. They spoke in turn outlining the most common issues that people raise with them about residential care. Listening to them, a number of recurring themes emerged including confusion about eligibility criteria, access to funding and poor communication and mixed messages from health and social care professionals. There was also concern about care especially for dementia sufferers.

Speaking after the event, Chair of the Action Group Anne Ashby (right) said "I think we achieved our objectives of hearing the views of the people of Sheffield about choosing care homes and the quality of care in them. We also supported health and social care managers to give information about how they currently help people make choices and the work they are doing to train staff in care homes."

Sheffield LINk is interested in hearing from you if you or someone you know has had good or bad experiences of an older person finding or living in a residential home in Sheffield. To share your story, please contact us or have your say.