1.         Report Summary

Guinness Care and Support provide a community alarm service to older people with support needs at Caernwell Place and Governors House in Bath.

A review of the schemes was carried out in January 2007 by Caroline Clark of the Supporting People Team.

This is a Community Alarm Service only, provided to 56 units of accommodation across 2 schemes in Bath. The alarm service is provided by Attendo Response, part of Tunstall Response. 

The schemes were continue to be strategically relevant to the B&NES Supporting People programme and appear to provide reasonable value for money, although this will be looked at in greater detail as part of a sector review of sheltered housing to be carried out during 2007.

The review found that the Guinness policies and procedures are generally well written and regularly updated and meet the required QAF Lite standards in all areas. 

2.         Introduction to Agency

At the time of the last review Caernwell Place was managed by Guinness Housing Association and Governors House was managed by Guinness Trust.  Both organisations are part of The Guinness Trust Group, a national provider of Care and Support to Older People.  The Group has a strong track record of working in partnership with residents, local councils, developers and other agencies and are currently working with over 100 local authorities.

In May 2005 management of both schemes was transferred to Guinness Care & Support, a new company set up to help the Guinness Trust deliver the best services to residents with support needs. 

Caernwell Place occupies a central location off Walcot Street in Bath, enabling easy access to shops and facilities in Bath city centre.  Built in the early 90’s the buildings were initially intended as private apartments.  However, following the developer going into liquidation they were acquired by Guinness and remodelled as sheltered housing for people over 55. 

Governors House is based in East Twerton, a quiet residential area of Bath.  It is well served by public transport and close to the shops and facilities in Oldfield Park.

The alarm service is provided by Attendo Response, part of Tunstall Response.  Pull cords are tested at quarterly intervals by the Scheme Manager of another site and a service contract is in place with Cirrus Communications who maintain and repair the equipment.

5.         Service Capacity and Funding

6.         Strategic Relevance

The two schemes offer a community alarm service only. There are no staffed support hours beyond this. Schemes offering community alarm support are in demand as they offer independence with assistance when required; the accommodation is popular and suitable for the needs of older people.

The service was found to be strategically relevant to the SP programme in B&NES and meets some of the objectives set out in the SP 5 yr strategy.  For example the service offers older people and opportunity for independent living whilst offering a safe and secure setting for the provision of general health, social and personal care in addition to housing related support services.

The B&NES Joint OP Strategy sets out to promote the independence and well being of older people.  The service meets the key aims of providing “an expanded range of housing and care options for older people to have real choice and control about how and where they live” and “responsive services which reduce unnecessary admissions to hospital and residential and nursing care”.  It also provides a setting for the delivery of “improved health and care services in the community which enable more older people to remain independent and living at home”.

Legal/DCLG Guidance on group and type of service

Housing, care and support is an important part of Government’s wider regeneration and social inclusion agenda.  The service contributes to the wider government agenda for preventative services in relation to the strategy for Older People: Helping people sustain their tenancies and prevent homelessness.  Flexible care can enable older people to remain at home in the community with dignity.

The Green Paper – Independence, Well Being and Choice published in March 2005, set out a vision for the provision of social care which placed great emphasis on delivering a preventative approach and promoting greater independence.  It sets out a vision where “services should be person-centred, seamless and proactive.  They should support independence not dependence and allow everyone to enjoy a good quality of life”.  Many of the proposals set have been integrated into the White Paper. 

The service also meets part of the Good Practice Guide – Sheltered and Retirement Housing published by the Chartered Institute of Housing through the provision of self contained, easy to manage, non-institutional accommodation, peace of mind and help in emergencies and an alternative to residential care.

8.         Consultation

Service Users

Although no consultation was carried out specifically with residents from alarm only schemes, residents from a number of Guinness sheltered schemes were interviewed as part of the review process.  Residents expressed satisfaction with the standard of their accommodation and the service provided by Guinness Care & Support. 

The alarm system is monitored by Attendo Response, part of Tunstall Response.  Tenants who had used the alarm had no concerns with the service provided by Attendo and were happy with the response they had received.

There were no outstanding complaints relating to the alarm only schemes at the time of the review.

Staff

No staff were interviewed in direct relation to the alarm only schemes although Guinness staff were spoken to as part of the wider review process.  

They were able to demonstrate a good knowledge of all relevant policies and procedures and felt that Guinness was a good organisation to work for with a good commitment to training.  There were no unresolved complaints at the time of the review.

Consultation with Other Stakeholders

Consultation with a senior member of the Homeseekers Team confirmed that sheltered and alarm only accommodation is automatically offered to anyone over the age of 60 regardless of their support needs. Over 50s with identified support needs will also be considered for this type of scheme.  Due to the lack of general needs accommodation it is rare than an applicant over 59 requests general needs and many feel that this will be their last move so they accept sheltered because they may need the support in the future.

She also commented that although there is a high demand for sheltered housing this is often because it is much easier to get housed in sheltered than in general needs accommodation.  Expectations of home seekers are often not met by the accommodation on offer and there are a high number of refusals because flats are too small or the location is poor e.g. too hilly or too isolated.

9.         Evidence and Risk Assessment

There were no operational risks identified in the service delivery of organisational structure.  All policies and procedures are in place and there is a clear process for training staff in these.

Both schemes were found to be working above the minimum levels required by the Quality Assessment Framework.