A grant from the Big Lottery will help kickstart a new one stop shop on care advice for older people, their families and carers.
A pioneering one stop shop on care advice led by a unique partnership involving several national older people’s charities and a financial advice company has been awarded start-up funding by the Lottery. The new service aims to make it easier to get quality advice and information on care for our ageing population.
The grant from the Big Lottery will help set up the care advice service and fund its roll out. The new national service will provide access to information and advice on care for older people through one website and one telephone number.
The care advice service is being set up by Elderly Accommodation Counsel and Counsel and Care with Nursing Home Fees Agency and Help the Aged. It builds on the strengths and experience of the four organisations’ valued information and advice services.
The one stop shop will enable older people and their families to get advice from all the organisations from one place – whether they are looking for a care home, having difficulty getting help from a local authority, need financial advice on paying for care or have a general enquiry about their rights and entitlements – and to expand capacity to address unmet need.
Ros Lucas, project manager, says: “More and more people need advice and information about elder care as our population ages and local authorities restrict help. Increasingly older people, their families and carers will be expected to find and pay for care themselves. To do so, they need the best possible information and advice and they need to know where to go to get that help. The one stop care advice service aims to deliver what many older people and their carers say they have wanted for years to help find their way through the care maze.
We will be working with government, local authorities, primary care trusts, care providers and other older people’s organisations to secure extra funding to ensure the new care advice service helps millions of older people, their families and carers.”
The care advice service will be launched later this year. In the meantime, older people and their families can get information and advice from the partner organisations’ advice lines:
For further information about the joint care service and this press release, contact Ros Lucas at EAC on Tel: 020 7820 1773 / 07961 107562 or e-mail: ros.lucas@eac.org.uk.
Notes to Editors
1. In May 2005, the Office of Fair Trading issued a recommendation report called “Care homes for older people in the UK – a market study”. One of the report’s main findings was “there is a lack of awareness among older people and their representatives about sources of information on the process of moving into a care home. There is a confusing multitude of different sources of information and no single clear reference point for people to consult.” As one of its main conclusions, the report recommended that “the Government should establish a central information source or one stop shop for people to get information about care for older people”. Recognising the need for such a service, the partner organisations took a lead in developing the concept of a national care advice service.
2. Nursing Homes Fees Agency, the commercial partner, will be contributing to the one stop shop from its own resources and making a financial contribution to the development of the service.