News - Debate

Lynne Rourke, care home manager, Southwood Lodge Reside Care Home in Bournemouth
No It is up to care homes whether they allow their residents to smoke, with residential settings currently exempt from smoke-free legislation. However, with a number of recent fires being caused by residents smoking, it is perhaps time that care homes banned smoking to help...

Frank Ursell, care home manager and chief executive, Registered Nursing Home Association
Yes A care home is a resident’s home and we should respect that and allow them to have the same rights as they would have at home. Care homes need to ensure residents are safe but still allow them to smoke. Frank Ursell argues it is an individual resident’s right to have the...

Stephanie Kirkman Meikle, chief executive, Skills 4 Living Centre
YES A care home in Harrogate was criticised recently by the Care Quality Commission for using 'patronising' language to its residents who have learning disabilities, with staff referring to them as 'sweetie' and 'love'. However, Stephanie Kirkman Meikle, chief executive for...

Adult Social Care Inspector, Care Quality Commission
NO The CQC inspector criticised the care home staff for its endearments, saying 'However, throughout our visit we heard staff using terms such as ‘sweetie’, ‘darling’,‘handsome’ and 'love' when speaking to and about people who used the service. 'Although the language was meant...

Cllr Izzi Seccombe, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board
YES The Government has announced it is delaying plans that would have capped pensioners’ care costs to £72,000 until 2020, saying it cannot fund them at the current time. The £72,000 care cap was due to be implemented in April 2016 and was designed to stop older people and...

Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of care home provider, Anchor
NO News of the delay was not so warmly received by some in the care sector. Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of Anchor, called it “outrageous” and said: “We’re very disappointed by the announcement from the Department for Health revealing a delay of the cap on individuals’ care...

Jenny Moore, founder of Your Voice Matters Campaign
YES "Your Voice Matters is 110 per cent behind the idea of CCTV installation in all care homes. The police recognised a long time ago that installing CCTV in station cells protected them and those in their custody. Nurseries looking after babies and small children have...

Des Kelly, executive director of the National Care Forum
NO "The issue of surveillance is one which has been in the news quite a bit recently with families taking the decision that installing hidden cameras in care homes and peoples own homes is the only way to ensure that they are adequately protected. The sector needs to have the...

Jane Ashcroft, chief executive of Anchor
YES A report published by the International Longevity Centre-UK (ILC-UK) and Anchor has called for more men to be recruited into the care sector to tackle a ‘staffing time bomb’ caused by a predicted rise in older people requiring social care in the near future. The...

John MacInnes and Jeroen Spijker, researchers at Edinburgh University
NO There is no need to fill the gap in carers with men and older workers as the ‘staffing time bomb’ does not exist, according to researchers from Edinburgh University. Professor John MacInnes and senior research fellow Jeroen Spijker said projections on...

Janet Rowse, chief executive, Sirona Care & Health
YES Care staff at Sirona Care and Health wear brightly-coloured uniforms with rainbow collars. The non-profit company, which runs three care homes in Bath, believes uniforms for staff are a good idea as they can reduce some of the anxiety and confusion that dementia patients...

Jeremy Garman, director of sales and marketing, Sunrise Senior Living
NO Sunrise Senior Living has 27 care homes in the UK. These homes are called ‘communities’ and the different areas within the homes are called ‘neighbourhoods’. None of the staff wear uniforms as Sunrise believes uniforms can give homes an institutional feel and it thinks...

Michelle Mitchell, charity director general of Age UK
YES The Government has announced new national eligibility criteria setting out a minimum threshold on who should be offered care and support by local authorities in England. However charities such as Age UK are concerned that the threshold could lead to millions of vulnerable...

Norman Lamb, Care Minister
NO Care Minister Norman Lamb has said the criteria is being introduced to put an end to the ‘postcode lottery’ because “we know people are often confused about what care they can expect from their local authority and far too many end up having to fight for the care that they need...

Paul Ridout, Ridout Solicitors
YES Paul Ridout, a lawyer specialising in health and social care issues, would like to see local authorities ignore anonymous allegations about care home abuse as he believes anonymous whistleblowers are motivated by malice and are “just stirring the dirt”. He would like there...

Eileen Chubb, former whistleblower and founder of Compassion in Care
NO Some people make anonymous allegations as relatives can worry that care home staff may take it out on their loved ones if they make an allegation. While staff fear they may lose their job. Eileen Chubb, who lost her job as a carer in Bromley after whistleblowing about the...

Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive at Nuffield Trust
YES An official care homes rating system looks set to return after a review by the Nuffield Trust found people have been “left in the dark” over the quality of care homes, hospitals and GP practices. The care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), stopped issuing its own...

Frank Ursell, chief executive of the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA)
NO Frank Ursell, chief executive of the Registered Nursing Home Association (RNHA), supports the proposal of a “well-managed, transparent and consistent ratings system” as a good way of helping the public to assess the quality of care homes, as well as providing a stimulus to...

Ian Buchan, Independent Age, director of care services
YES – it is making people scared of all care homes “While bad practice has of course to be exposed - and a spate of recent reports have highlighted that there are problems across most services older people use, in hospitals, care homes and care received at home - there is also...

Jenny Moore, founder of Your Voice Matters
NO - the media plays a vital role in exposing bad practice “Your Voice Matters is often criticised by defensive care staff for posting negative press. We invite them to name their care home but they refuse. We invited them to meet with the Care Quality Commission to talk about...

Paul Burstow MP, former care minister
YES Former care minister Paul Burstow MP has proposed new criminal sanctions for care home owners who allow the abuse and neglect of vulnerable patients. The Liberal Democrat MP has published a report, ‘Care and Corporate Neglect’ setting out how a new law could be enacted...

Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association
NO Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association has called on the Government to be cautious in its response to Paul Burstow’s call to make care home owners criminally accountable. She believes it would be unfair to single out care home owners and any law would have...

Norman Lamb MP, Care and Support Minister
YES Minister for Care and Older People Norman Lamb clashed with shadow minister Liz Kendall last week, over comments the Labour MP saw as accusing UK families of neglecting their elderly. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Lamb claimed that “older people...

Liz Kendall MP, Shadow Care and Support Minister
NO Liz Kendall MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Care and Older People, was scathing towards Mr Lamb’s comments on family responsibility, attacking the Coalition’s record on the ‘care crisis’ and calling for the Government to take responsibility, rather than...

Vidhya Alakeson, deputy chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, research and policy organisation working to improve outcomes for people on low incomes
YES Thousands of patients in England will soon have access to their own NHS personal health budgets giving them more control over the type of treatment they receive. The scheme is designed to help patients who have complex conditions and require care and support. However in the...

Claudia Wood, deputy director of Demos, a thinktank, which challenges the traditional, 'ivory tower' model of policymaking by giving a voice to people and communities
NO Claudia Wood believes the problem with personal health budgets is that by their very definition of ‘personal’, they are most suited “to the purchase of services on an individual basis”. “Personal Health Budgets will see an individual given a pot of funding to spend on health...

Erica Lockhart, chief executive, Surrey Care Association Ltd
YES “I recall the introduction of the old star rating system and the challenges providers faced in implementing it and then the emotional turmoil it raised when their service fell short. However by the end, Surrey care providers, especially those that had made the three star...

Sue Brand, managing director, RDB Star Rating Limited
NO “The benefit of a star rating system both to purchasers of care and care providers has been proved, however I believe the re-introduction of any system should be care sector driven, voluntary, holistic, objective, consistent and independent from the regulator but complimentary...

Geoff Lane, chief executive, Regal Care Trading Ltd
CARE HOME “It is undoubtedly true that when we reach an age where we need additional help, the vast majority of people would wish to stay in their own home in familiar surroundings. In many instances this works well but the reality today for too many people is that they are isolated...

Lindsey Edgehill, marketing director, Helping Hands
HOME CARE “Residential care homes are a crucial part of the UK’s elderly care portfolio and without them the country would not be able to adequately care for its elderly, but it’s important that families understand that alternatives to residential care homes, such as care at home...

Dot Gibson, National Pensioners Convention, general secretary
YES “This idea that the country’s economy is struggling because an army of millionaire pensioners are joy riding with their free bus passes is absolute nonsense. The economic crisis is being used as an excuse to undermine the welfare state and roll back some of our hard earned gains...

Stephen Burke, United for All Ages
NO: “The wealth held by many (but by no means all) older people should be the starting point to pay for care. It would also be intergenerationally fair compared to general taxation. “As has been widely documented, the care system is severely underfunded and in crisis. More and...

Stephen Lowe, social care policy advisor for Age UK
YES Age UK, has been campaigning for care home providers to have financial health checks for years. Its policy advisor, Stephen Lowe says: "We favour a regulatory approach and it needs specific financial expertise so Monitor (currently the independent regulator of NHS Foundation...

Martin Green, chief executive, English Community Care Association (ECCA)
NO "In relation to financial regulation we believe that every business should be able to show it is viable but this is required already by the Audit process and by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) so we do not need extra regulation," says ECCA’s chief executive. Martin Green...