Agenda item

To hear from Tom Brown (Interim Assistant Director, Adult Services) with regards to resource allocations for the Older People’s Service.

There have been large changes in those aged 65 years of age and over in recent years.  For example, there has been an increase in the number of ‘older older’ people, especially in the 85 years of age plus population.  Amongst the 85 years there is an increased prevalence of cognitive impairments.  This will undoubtedly put pressure on statutory services.

Those present were taken through a number of projections for Haringey which were sourced from the Projecting Older People Population Information system (POPPI). POPPI has been developed by the Institute of Public Care for the Care Services Efficiency Delivery Programme designed to help explore the possible impact that demography and certain conditions may have on populations aged 65 and over.  Office of National Statistics (ONS) data is used for this projections and it is important to note that there are differences in these projections when put alongside the Greater London Authority (GLA) projections.  However, ONS statistics are used to determine local authority budget allocations.

Haringey’s over 65 years population is expected to increase by almost 2,000 over the next 17years with those over 85 years expected to increase by 600 over the same period.

Along side these it is also projected that there will be an increase in the number of;

Ø      people receiving community based services;

Ø      people helped to live at home;

Ø      households receiving intensive home care;

Ø      people projected to have dementia;

Ø      people unable to manage at least one self-care activity on their own;

Ø      people unable to manage at least one domestic task on their own.

All of the above will put increased pressures on the older people’s service budget.

Resources are tied up in the acute end of services.  Preventative services for older people receive approximately 5% (£937,000) of resources for the service as a whole.

2% (£417,000) of this is on drop-in centres.

There are investment proposals in the forthcoming budget for older people‘s services.

With regards to efficiency savings the service is looking at ways of providing services more efficiently whilst not compromising the quality or level of service and where possible improving these.

An example of this is the Community Transport System where vehicles that are linked to centres, and may be left unused for periods of time are being centrally coordinated and therefore able to provide a more flexible service to more groups. (

Noted that this needs to be widely publicised to address user concerns)

The Community Transport System will train drivers from groups who wish to hire the vehicles.

There is still an East/West divide with a 10 year difference in the East of the borough – people in the east of the borough are more likely to get the same type of illness as people in the west of the borough, but ten years earlier.

Points of Discussion

There are concerns about the issues surrounding census data for Haringey, including the projections.  This is due to a number of reasons including the high transience amongst the population and the ‘hidden population’.  This is noted as an area that Haringey needs to focus  attention on before the next census to ensure that the government recognises the true Haringey population and is able to resource accordingly.

Basic Foot care

At the Age Concern Annual Meeting at least half of the approximately 180 attendees raised basic foot care as an issue.  This includes simple tasks such as cutting toe nails.

Concern raised that if the 90 attendees with basic foot care issues is representative of the older people population in Haringey then this signifies a significant problem.

Noted that Foot care is a NHS responsibility and that due to financial pressures this has been a service which has been reduced.

There are four drop-in centres in Haringey which will cut older people’s toe nails, this is being funded by the social care budget and not the TPCT.  Noted that this is also a preventative measure as long toe nails can cause falls.

Noted that there is a view that the TPCT should at least contribute to this cost.

Age Concern has been running a campaign called ‘Feet for Purpose’ since August 2007.  It is hoped that this is something that will be included in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

A Member of the Haringey Forum for Older People and Muswell Hill & Highgate Pensioners Action Group has written to the TPCT requesting information about foot care services available in the borough.