Chesterfield
&
District
AGE CONCERN
CHESTERFIELD & DISTRICT
Is a Voluntary Organisation working for older people, their families and carers, by providing information, services, support and by tackling issues that affect older people in Chesterfield, North East Derbyshire and Bolsover District Council Areas.
We are a member of the Federation of
Age Concern England.
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AGE CONCERN
CHESTERFIELD & DISTRICT
2010 - 2011
TRUSTEES/EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Sylvia Everitt (Chair)
John Duncan (Hon. Secretary)
Ray Farnsworth (Hon. Treasurer)
Sheelagh Hanson
Carol Hoskin
Geoffrey Speed
Nancy Sturdy
Merle Taylor
STAFF
CARE LINE
John Siddall – Chief Officer/Care Line Co-ordinator – 21 Hours
ADVOCACY, INFORMATION & ADVICE SERVICE
Sheelagh Hanson – To August 2010
Advocacy Co-ordinator/Information & Advice Officer - 20 Hours
Sarah Lacey – From August 2010
Advocacy Co-ordinator/Information & Advice Officer - 20 Hours
OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR
Janet Gough – 24 Hours
VOLUNTEERS
Ian Bradley, Anne Carter, Lihliah Clarke, Angie Corby, Carla Crawford, John Duncan, Sylvia Everitt, Ray Farnsworth, David Fitzpatrick, Kathleen Forrest, Martin Gough, Sheelagh Hanson, Jill Hodgkins, Carol Hoskin, Greta Jones, Patricia Jones, Rita King, Mahes Kirby, Michael Mason, Sylvia Mirfin, Lesley Smith, Geoffrey Speed, Jeannette Speed, Nancy Sturdy, Merle Taylor, David Turner, Kathleen Wells, Mick Wilkins.
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
In accordance with our Constitution I shall be handing over the Chair at this year’s AGM. The past 6 years have simply flown by and there have been many changes over that period.
The biggest change was our move to New Square last October. At last we have a window to let in light instead of being underground as we were at Stephenson Place. Everyone has enjoyed the move and gradually people are getting to know where we are, as is evidenced by the personal enquiries we have.
Our small back room is used for one hour on Tuesdays by Banner Jones, Solicitors, who provide half an hour of free legal advice for older people. Interviews are arranged in the office. Occasionally we have a visit from a representative of ‘Tax for Older People’ – a subject close to our hearts!
We are very relieved to have confirmation that our funding is in place until 31 March 2012. After that we face an uncertain future along with many other charities but I’m sure we will be able to meet any difficulties encountered.
The Care Line has increased considerably under the auspices of our Chief Officer and now has 49 service users with a dedicated team of volunteers handling the calls up to three times per week.
We now have 27 volunteers with various backgrounds such as nursing, social services, ex mental health workers, office and factory workers etc. Because of the volume of telephone calls we have, the majority of which are information and advice, four of our volunteers are being trained to NVQ so at least they will be able to signpost people to the correct information.
An important project this year was a consultation process with clubs in North East Derbyshire, Bolsover and Chesterfield. This was organised by Sue O’Donnell who has worked with health issues all her life. We had two consultative meetings at which clubs were invited, one in North Wingfield and the other in Eckington. These proved to be very successful in that we learned so much about how the clubs work and the problems they encounter.
Lastly, I would like to personally thank all staff, trustees and volunteers for the support they have given me over the past 6 years.
Sylvia Everitt
Chair
INFORMATION & ADVICE SERVICE
Age Concern Chesterfield and District deliver an Information and Advice Service on a wide variety of subjects including care at home, welfare benefits, paying for residential/nursing care, etc.
Customer contact is made in person at our office, by telephone or by e-mail. Information and Advice Services are supported by a wide variety of leaflets and factsheets which are frequently updated and distributed by AgeUK. During the financial year 2010-2011 Age Concern Chesterfield and District’s enquiries for this service increased.
Our partnership with Banner Jones solicitors continues. This provides access to free legal advice at our premises on Tuesday mornings between 10.30am and 11.30am, and is a service which is well used by older people and their families.
During this financial year the number of appointments made has increased and people have also been seen on a drop-in basis. Many telephone enquiries have been referred to Banner Jones. As this service continues to be popular we advise making a 30 minute appointment rather than dropping in as this will avoid disappointment if appointments have already been booked.
T.O.P.S.(Tax for Older People’s Service) also use our facilities for appointments to assist their clients. Clients contact T.O.P.S. direct who then book our office facilities and give an hour appointment to each client.
Sarah Lacey took over the post of Information and Advice Co-ordinator in August 2010.
During the last nine months, an information booklet has been produced detailing our services. This was produced with financial support from More Media.
A good working relationship has been formed with Rosedale Financial Management who specialise in financial advice and services for those needing to pay for care services.
We have commenced Information and Advice training with a number of our volunteers who, on completion of their training, will be able to support the service at busy times.
ADVOCACY SERVICEThis service assists older people to have a say in affairs that concern them, such as making decisions about future care, money matters, housing, benefits, and other events affecting their lives. The service is independent of health or social care providers. The service provides impartial information and advice and practical help. In addition to home visits, other cases have been carried out by telephone. Advocacy work is undertaken by the Information and Advice officer. The work is very time-consuming within our limited time constraints, and in some cases extremely complex.
Sarah Lacey took over this role in August 2010. In addition to providing older people with information to enable them to make decisions, older people have been supported in meetings with Social Services regarding their care needs, in safeguarding meetings and best interests assessments.
Referrals to the Advocacy Service come from Social Services, family members and older people themselves. A proportion of these referrals can be resolved over the telephone whilst others may involve a one-off visit and others ongoing support.
Sarah undertook a day’s training on Advocacy with AgeUK Nottingham and Nottinghamshire in November 2010. This training concentrated on the theory behind Advocacy and the skills required in providing the service.
VOLUNTEERS
This year our 28 volunteers donated 2,500 hours of their time doing a variety of tasks. This is equivalent to a cash donation of £37,500 or 1.9 full time posts.
CARE LINE
The Care Line is a telephone befriending service provided to support Older People in the Chesterfield, Bolsover and North East Derbyshire areas. The calls are made on 4 days per week and service users are called up to 3 times per week. We made over 4000 calls last year and increased the number of service users from 43 to 48. On average each service user received 78 calls per year.
Referrals to the service have been made by Doctors, Nurses, Mental Welfare Organisations, Social Care Services or family. We then visit the person who has been referred, to assess their needs, discuss the Care Line Service, the number of calls required per week and to provide any other information which may be necessary.
Service users are mainly housebound, may be disabled, have no family nearby, recently bereaved or been recently discharged from hospital. During the calls we endeavour to lift the service user’s spirits and aim to reduce the risks associated with depression, as some service users do not speak to, or see anyone all day.
We have referred service users onto other services when necessary, i.e. to clubs and groups, the Handyperson Scheme, for fire checks, for benefits checks etc.
We are fortunate to have 16volunteers for the Care Line Service, who bring experiences from varied areas of life and, through the Annual Report we would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their work and for giving their time.
We have conducted satisfaction surveys which have revealed that our volunteers have received overwhelming praise for improving the quality of life for our service users.
OLDER PEOPLE’S CLUBS
In June 2010 the Trustees agreed to fund a project to find out how the established and extensive network of Older Peoples Clubs and groups serves the needs of the older population in our area. It was agreed that a project worker would be employed and this allowed a plan to be drawn up which identified four stages for the project:
1. Visits to Clubs
2. Partnership working
3. Organise two consultation meetings with all Clubs in the North and South of the District
4. Evaluate feedback and produce a report and recommendations for the Executive Committee and Partner Organisations.
We were fortunate to secure the assistance of Sue O’Donnell. Sue was no stranger to Age Concern. In 1997 when our first employee was appointed, Sue O’Donnell in her role as Chief Officer of North Derbyshire Community Health Council was also appointed as supervisor for a period of six months.
CONCLUSIONS
There was support for Age Concern to act as a broker between clubs and supporting organisations.
There were two main outcomes from the consultation undertaken through visits to clubs and discussions with representatives at the meetings in North Wingfield and Eckington:
1. Improved information for Trustees about the role of the clubs was obtained from face to face discussions with over one quarter of the clubs on the charity’s database.
2. A clear idea of the priorities for future action by the charity.
As a result of contact with clubs a number of them responded and provided information on difficulties they were facing and in some cases asked for help to maintain the club. These requests were either acted on by the charity, or clubs were directed to the appropriate organisation for more assistance.
AGE CONCERN CHESTERFIELD & DISTRICT
acknowledges, and is grateful for the financial support it has received from the following organisations:-
DERBYSHIRE COUNTY PRIMARY CARE TRUST
and
DERBYSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
(We could not operate without this combined funding)
AGE CONCERN – EAST MIDLANDS
For a share of their Joint Income Generation
DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS – ACCESS TO WORK
For a grant to enable us to purchase special computer/equipment
BANNER JONES – SOLICITORS
For a donation towards the cost of the Older People’s Clubs Project
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All our volunteers and friends who knitted and helped with the
BIG KNIT PROJECT
and who helped to collect at
SAINSBURYS, DRONFIELD
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We also acknowledge the donations listed below and the many sundry contributions which have helped to subsidise the various services we provide:-
MRS M NEWTON
MR M THOMPSON
MISS J SLACK
MR R SHIER
MRS B LANCASTER
DRONFIELD OLD PEOPLES WELFARE CLUB
CHESTERFIELD TOWNS WOMENS GUILD
We also wish to thank the volunteers who donated items to help equip our new office.
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