Everyone’s Tomorrow E-bulletin
Welcome to the sixth quarterly edition of Newcastle’s Everyone’s Tomorrow
E-bulletin. This issue includes:
Local developments
· Update on Everyone’s Tomorrow – The Strategy for Older People and an Ageing Population in Newcastle upon Tyne
· Launch of a Tutor Databank
· Joining the Dots!
· Older Person Friendly City: Parks and Recreation Areas report
· Newcastle’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)
· Neighbourhood Charters
National developments
· Common Assessment Framework for Adults – Consultation
· Living well with dementia: A National Dementia Strategy
· Empowering engagement: a stronger voice for older people
· Be active, be healthy: a plan for getting the nation moving
Reports, research and other material
· Making personal budgets work for older people: developing experience
· LinkAge Plus: Benefits for older people
· Lost in the Money Maze: How advice agencies and credit unions can help older people cope with today’s financial systems, Help the Aged
· Opportunity Age Indicators: 2008 Update
· The Case for Healthy Ageing
· Delivering Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods
· Lifetime Homes, Lifetime Neighbourhoods: A User's Guide
Conferences
· Progress on Personalisation: Putting People First One Year On
· Implementing the National Dementia Strategy: A practical guide to improving the quality of dementia services
· Managing Long Term Conditions
· Implementing the National Dementia Strategy
· Lifepsychol
Contact information
Local developments
Update on Everyone’s Tomorrow – The Strategy for Older People and an Ageing Population in Newcastle upon Tyne
Older People’s Business Group
As reported in the November edition of this e-bulletin, Peter Fletcher Associates’ review of the first year of Newcastle’s Older People’s Strategic Board recommended that a Business Group was established that would mirror the membership of the Board and would support its work. The Older People’s Business Group has now been set up and has met twice to date. The group’s first task is to review and update the Everyone’s Tomorrow Action Plan. For more information about the Business Group, contact Barbara Douglas at the Quality of Life Partnership by email at , or on telephone number 0191 233 0200.
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Launch of a Tutor Databank
The Tutor Databank is a new free service for anyone wanting to hire a tutor to deliver an activity taster session and/or an activity programme to people aged 50+ in Newcastle. The Quality of Life Partnership is co-ordinating the scheme and will carry out all of the relevant background checks (CRB, references, insurance, qualifications and interview). Once these are satisfactory, the tutors will be added to the Databank. Staff, and older people themselves, can then contact the service and will be given the details of up to three tutors in the relevant areas, with the knowledge that they are appropriately qualified, reliable and older person friendly.
For more information, or to access the service, contact Michelle Mordue, Active Ageing Development Worker at the Quality of Life Partnership, on telephone number 0191 255 1985.
The Tutor Databank is just one of several different programmes being developed by the Quality of Life Partnership via the New Leaf New Life Active Ageing Programme, which is funded by the Big Lottery. The programme is for people aged 50+ and aims to promote their mental well-being, encourage greater participation in physical activity, and support healthy eating. Other 50+ programmes include cycling, walking, swimming, green gym, city centre healthy living centre, and a capacity-building course called Ageing Well which incorporates classes on coping with pain, mobility, memory, healthy cooking, complimentary therapies and sexual health.
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Joining the Dots!
Details about the ‘Joining the Dots’ strategic development programme were reported in the November edition of this e-bulletin. ‘Joining the Dots’ aims to bring about a shift in how we deliver services which support independent living, and in the priority given by health and social care (and wider partners) to preventative services for older people in Newcastle.
Newcastle has been successful in its bid to the Regional Dementia Group to be an ‘early adopter site’ for the National Dementia Strategy – Living Well with Dementia. Our proposal aims to ensure that the ‘Joining the Dots’ programme responds to the needs of people with dementia and their carers.
A Project Manager has been appointed for 12 months to link with others to lead this programme of work. Sandra Hillyard takes up post on 16 March 2009 and will be based within the Quality of Life Partnership. For further information about ‘Joining the Dots’, contact Barbara Douglas at the Quality of Life Partnership by email at , or on telephone number 0191 233 0200.
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Older Person Friendly City: Parks and Recreation Areas report
The report by the Elders Council of Newcastle’s Older Person Friendly City Group on parks and recreation areas that was mentioned in the November edition of this e-bulletin, has attracted a lot of interest. The report gives an account of the group’s findings from their surveys of 18 parks and puts forward recommendations on access, amenities, safety and security, and activities, with a proposal for outdoor exercise equipment for adults, and a greater involvement of local communities in planning developments. To read a copy of the report, visit the Elders Council of Newcastle website at: http://www.elderscouncil.org.uk/publications/
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Newcastle’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)
This new website aims to provide up-to-date information about the health and well-being of people living and working in Newcastle. It aims to tell us what is known about health and social care needs and services (including a section on local/community views) and gives an assessment of what are the key inequalities, where the gaps are in services, what works, and what doesn’t work. The website has been jointly produced by Newcastle City Council’s Adult Services, Children’s Services, Public Health, and NHS North of Tyne. The website is very much a work in progress, but already makes a lot of information available to the community which previously may not have been. To find out more, visit the JSNA Newcastle upon Tyne website: http://www.newcastlejsna.org.uk/
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Neighbourhood Charters
Newcastle City Council is looking to introduce Neighbourhood Charters across the city. This is being delivered by the City Council’s Neighbourhood Management Team. A Neighbourhood Charter is a voluntary partnership agreement between the community, the local authority, and other service providers such as the Police and the Primary Care Trust. Newcastle is proposing to have one Neighbourhood Charter for every Ward of the city.
Neighbourhood Charters are designed to strengthen local democracy and to enable more local people to have their say in the decisions that affect their quality of life. They can be helpful in determining priorities for action, service standards, and obligations that the community has taken on itself. They can therefore boost opportunities for residents, both as individuals and collectively, to influence what happens in the local areas that they live in. This approach to neighbourhood management and community empowerment using the Neighbourhood Charters is in direct response to Government and Council policy priorities. For further information about Neighbourhood Charters, contact Dave Tinsley, Head of Neighbourhood Management, by email at , or on telephone number 0191 277 7039.
The Quality of Life Partnership and the Elders Council of Newcastle are currently carrying out work in the Cowgate and Jesmond areas of the city with students from Newcastle University and local older people to assess the older person friendliness of those areas. This work will feed into the development of the Neighbourhood Charters. For further information about this work, contact Barbara Douglas at the Quality of Life Partnership by email at , or on telephone number 0191 233 0200.
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National developments
Common Assessment Framework for Adults – Consultation
The Department of Health has launched a consultation on improving the quality and efficiency of care and support through improvements in the sharing and use of information. It covers the rationale for improving information; how assessment and care planning should be undertaken (the principles); what information should be commonly shared, and with whom; and the IT approaches that would enable this to take place within appropriate arrangements for consent, confidentiality and security.
The proposals cover developments that will help to meet the growing expectation that all those who are involved in caring for and supporting individuals will share relevant information. This will help to ensure that individuals don’t need to provide the same information to different service providers.
The consultation was launched on 21 January and runs until 17 April 2009. For more information, or to give your views, visit the Department of Health website at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_093438
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Living well with dementia: A National Dementia Strategy
The first ever national dementia strategy was launched on 3 February 2009. It sets out initiatives which are designed to make the lives of people with dementia, their carers and their families better and more fulfilled. The strategy is supported by £150 million for the first two years, and aims to:
- increase awareness of dementia;
- ensure early diagnosis and intervention; and
- radically improve the quality of care that people with the condition receive.
Proposals include the introduction of a dementia specialist into every general hospital and care home, and for mental health teams to assess people with dementia.
To read a copy of the strategy, visit the Department of Health website at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_094058
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Empowering engagement: a stronger voice for older people – The Government response to John Elbourne’s review
In 2008, John Elbourne was asked to examine the current arrangements for the engagement of older people, and the ability of those arrangements to inform policy and actions of Government at all levels. He published his ‘Review of Older People’s Engagement with Government’ towards the end of last year, as reported in the November 2008 edition of this e-bulletin. The Government published its response to this review on 3 February 2009.
Amongst other measures, the response states that a new national UK Advisory Forum on Ageing will be established to give older people a direct line to Government to comment on new policy ideas, services, legislation and what areas they feel the Government needs to address. The Forum will be co-chaired by the Minister for Pensions and the Ageing Society, Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP, and the Minister of State for Care Services, Phil Hope MP.It aims to have a clear focus on helping to improve the well-being of older people and addressing the opportunities and challenges of an ageing society.
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To read a copy of the response, visit the Department for Work and Pensions website at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/resourcecentre/empowering-engagement-stronger-voice-older-people.pdf
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Be active, be healthy: a plan for getting the nation moving
Be active, be healthy is a new national strategy which was published on 11 February 2009. The strategy sets out new ideas for Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) to help to determine and respond to the needs of their local populations by providing and encouraging more physical activity. This would both benefit individuals and communities, and deliver overall cost savings.
For the first time ever, the plan publishes the NHS costs of physical inactivity for every PCT in England. This averages at £5 million per PCT every year, which is the equivalent of almost 1,000 hip replacements per PCT. In Newcastle, the cost is estimated at £1,811,705 per 100,000 members of the local population.
To read a copy of the strategy, visit the Department of Health website at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_094358
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Reports, research and other material
Making personal budgets work for older people: developing experience, Department of Health
This paper considers the findings of the Individual Budgets Pilot Evaluation for older people in particular. It also reports on advances made since the evaluation was concluded. It sets out approaches to develop personal budgets to ensure that they are attractive and useful to older people. Key messages from emerging practice in personalisation with older people are:
- Whole system change is important
- Start from the person
- Small things make a difference
- Solutions need to be flexible and individual
- There needs to be choice in how the money is managed
- Good support is essential
To read a copy of the report, visit the CSIP Networks website at:
http://www.networks.csip.org.uk/_library/PersonalBudgetsOlderPeople.pdf
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LinkAge Plus: Benefits for older people, Department for Work and Pensions
This second thematic report on the evaluation of LinkAge Plus focuses on how the whole systems approach and its pilot activities have resulted in a range of benefits for older people. LinkAge gave the pilot sites the opportunity to put in place initiatives that for the most part provide that ‘little bit of extra help’ that is vital for promoting older people’s well-being. Those activities are ones which are no longer necessarily part of statutory mainstream provision. However, the report finds that they have contributed to the improvement of older people's quality of life, healthy life expectancy, and active participation in society.
To read a copy of the report, visit the Department of Work and Pensions website at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/rports2009-2010/rrep554.pdf
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Lost in the Money Maze: How advice agencies and credit unions can help older people cope with today’s financial systems, Help the Aged
This toolkit has been produced by Help the Aged as part of the ‘Now let’s talk money’ campaign, which is designed to increase awareness of the products and services that are available to financially excluded consumers and to encourage them to ask for help when they need it. The campaign also aims to inform and encourage frontline advisers to work together to co-ordinate provision and to raise awareness of that provision, so that the needs of excluded people are met more effectively. The toolkit explores the barriers that exist for older people accessing financial services; and how service providers can break down these barriers.
To read a copy of the toolkit, visit the Help the Aged website at:
http://policy.helptheaged.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/A5B27085-9F37-4F04-B1B5-A2CAFE6605E7/0/money_maze_141108.pdf?&MSHiC=65001&L=10&W=MAZEL%20MONE%20MONEYD%20MONEYS%20maze%20money%20&Pre=%3CSPAN%20STYLE%3D%22color%3A%20%23000000%3B%20background-color%3A%20%23FFFF00%22%3E&Post=%3C/SPAN%3E