Consultation report just published recommends closure of Bowles Lodge!

Bowles Lodge Consultation Report

Consultation Questionnaire Feedback - just released

Consultation Questionnaire Feedback

Decision timetable

Decision Making Process for the Future of Older Persons Provision

Meeting with Graham Gibbens & Christy Holden

These are the questions I prepared and asked at my meeting today at 9am.

1. Have you made any decisions yet regarding the future of older person's provision in Kent County Council?

2. When and how will they be announced?

3. As you make the decision is there congruence between your role as Cabinet Member for KCC and you, in your heart, as an individual human being?

4. Why was my proposal rejected before your decision has been announced?

5. Have you seen the report prepared by officers?

6. Is it finalised yet, if not when will it be?

7. Will any part of the report be restricted? If so to who and for what reasons?

8. How and when will it be available to the public?

9. Will staff have access to it at the same time as the public or at a different time?

10. Will managers be briefed before other staff and the public?

11. When & how do you intend to brief residents and their families, friends, advocates & carers?

12. Greg Clark asked you that research be done, as an important element of the consultation process, concerning the availability of suitable spaces in private/independent sector care homes for all permanent residents that may need to be moved - has this been done? If so what are the results and can I have a copy? If not, why not?

13. Are you aware that in October this year KCHA surveyed 450 homes regarding vacancies in the private/independent sector. Only 35 replied revealing 105 vacancies - the great majority of these in coastal towns in Kent?

14. Are you aware that Oliver Mills is meeting with Karen Cooper on 11th January, Kent Care Homes Association, to discuss contract prices and that he has already indicated that he will seek to negotiate a reduction in price for newly placed people who are funded through KCC - the contract with these homes?

15. Are you aware of the deep concern in the private/independent sector about this issue?


16. Homes rated excellent will have a majority of self funders and a waiting list (Mount Ephraim House in TW & High Hilden in Tonbridge for example). Homes that are not performing so well are more attracted to block contracts with KCC. Spot contracts allow KCC funded people to be placed in excellent homes but it is likely that family & friends will have to top up above the KCC ceiling. Do you agree that this can create a two-tier level of care - the more money you have the better care you can purchase?

17. Tell me what you understand the impact has been so far since the consultation was announced in June on the residents of the homes being considered?

18. The equality impact assessment I requested on my mother, Vera Waylor, was made several months into the process and Oliver Mills wrote to me to say this would be done after the decision was made. Why did no-one consider doing an interim assessment under your legal duty of care to examine any impacts on residents' physical & psychological health & well-being?

19. What evidence do you have that moving very elderly and frail people does not increase their risk of dying prematurely?

20. If you do decide to close homes and residents that have to move die prematurely as a consequence, how will you feel?

BBC Radio Kent interview

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00cm9pj/Breakfast_with_John_Warnett_and_Clare_McDonnell_Wikileaks/

Go to 1:19.30 - its about 8 minutes

Council reject our proposal - too early!

From: John Porter [mailto:john@balloons.plus.com]
Sent: 14 December 2010 21:42
To: 'Christy.Holden@kent.gov.uk'
Subject: RE: Alternative Proposal for Bowles Lodge

Dear Christy

This is a premature response. My lawyer is very interested that you have chosen to respond in this way despite the fact that that graham Gibbens has not yet announced his decision. It sounds defensive as though you are actively supporting the closure of Bowles Lodge. Graham Gibbens has said from the outset that he will weigh all the submissions and although he will listen to his professional officers it is a political decision - not the officers. I am glad that Graham had sight of my full proposal, as indeed all the Cabinet and Scrutiny Committee have had as well.

Regarding your specific points I make the following observations:

· I am well aware that Bowles Lodge is being used for respite care when permanent places become available. The main reason for availability so far is death with one move to another home (and subsequent death within a few weeks) and another planned move.

· You are both right and wrong concerning the duplication of services with local community hospitals. I have met with senior people from PCTs in Kent and the cost of unnecessary extended stays in local community hospitals is at least three times the cost of a place at Bowles Lodge. Running costs at Bowles Lodge are in the lowest quartile for Kent homes for the elderly.

· Repairs have begun on the roof at Bowles Lodge. The fabric of the building is very sound according to a structural engineer I engaged. The whole roof does not need replacing. How did you arrive at the figure of £280,000? Do you have three quotes?

· I accept that Bowles Lodge will change. My proposal allows for an enhanced service to also be provided to the existing permanent residents - particularly the intervention of a dedicated falls team in a group setting. Permanent residents that have fallen have required acute hospital admission. The public are becoming more aware of the astronomic costs of these admissions compared to the relatively low cost of a preventative approach.

· Your point about the PFI is correct. We should not put money before the lives of those most frail and elderly people who have served our country and now need to live the rest of their lives in peace. There are alternative sites though there are political and local difficulties with all of them. Again, what will the public think about this?

· I have presented my proposal to an independent consultant whose findings will be released to the media when I choose. It is a viable proposal. It just does not sit within your constrained thinking. A Chief Executive of an NHS Acute Hospital Trust is particularly interested in it because it saves the NHS money.

The consultation is taking its toll on the residents at Bowles Lodge which started with the inept briefing of residents and their families in June this year. That briefing created anxiety which has steadily intensified. The permanent residents will usually not disclose to their relatives how worried they are as they do not want to cause anxiety to them. One resident I speak to every week is often in tears - sick with worry about what will happen to her. My mum at her annual review with her social worker and the manager at Bowles Lodge disclosed how worried she is. It took my mum more than eight months to settle and she has thrived at Bowles Lodge, as all people do that my mum's social worker has referred there. That speaks volumes!

It is a pity that you chose to respond to me before Graham and others have seen the report. You have, however, provided additional reasons about how flawed this consultation has been and your tone suggests that the decision has already been made - something that Graham has rightly stated time and again is absolutely not the case.

You could partially restore my confidence in the transparent consultation process by providing me with a copy of the report that went to Cabinet that resulted in the proposals being formulated in the first place before June this year. It will be critical to see that report and to read it in conjunction with the report that is being prepared for Graham to assist his decision making. Reviewing the original rationale, the submissions and how they have been assessed and the final report is vital to a fair and just decision and something the courts have expected in previous judicial reviews.

Regards

John Porter

From: Christy.Holden@kent.gov.uk [mailto:Christy.Holden@kent.gov.uk]
Sent: 14 December 2010 12:05
To: john@balloons.plus.com
Subject: Alternative Proposal for Bowles Lodge

Dear Mr Porter

Thank you for the submission of an alternative proposal for Bowles Lodge.

Your proposal has been fully evaluated by a Panel consisting of representatives from Kent Adult Social Services Finance department, Personnel, Service, Policy and Standards, Provision and Commissioning.

The submission and response will be included in the final report which is being prepared ready to be presented to the Cabinet Member for decision in January 2011.

Observations from the panel include:

o Bowles Lodge is currently being used for respite when permanent beds are being vacated. With the development of the Enablement at Home service over the last year, which is a KCC care service, people are now wanting more to be supported at home when they leave hospital.

o The local community hospital undertakes a similar role to the alternative proposal you have submitted and there would be both duplication and over supply if this proposed service was to be developed longer term at Bowles Lodge.

o Bowles Lodge would need capital investment for services to continue longer term including, for instance, £280,000 for the roof to be replaced.

o It is recognised that families understandably do not want services to change for the permanent residents.

o This proposal would mean that KCC and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council would lose its share of the PFI funding to develop extra care housing in the district. There is no option for an alternative site to be found for the extra care housing. The panel agreed that the priority should be to secure services for older people through extra care housing for the future.

It was therefore considered that this alternative proposal is not viable.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any queries.

Christy Holden

Project Manager & BHAL PFI Contract Manager

Public Private Partnerships & Property Team

Kent Adult Social Services

Brenchley House

Maidstone

Kent ME14 1RF

07920 780623

01622 694272

!