By Jan Stevenson and Linda SpencerThe guide has been produced following the three-year King’s Fund Rehabilitation Programme. It shows that intermediate care requires a transformation in the whole system of services provided to older people in a locality. Intermediate care should fit as an integral part of a wide range of health, social care and housing services, and not simply be seen as more beds in a hospital or a care home. It can be defined as a short-term intervention to preserve the independence of a person who might otherwise be forced to go into hospital or a nursing home. It is an active and intensive way of helping those who have suffered from illness or injury to get their lives back. It includes a wide range of activities, such as physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and practical support foreveryday living. It requires a high level of partnership working between local agencies as well as a commitment to involve users and their carers in designing new kinds of service. The guide will help those responsible for developing intermediate care to find ways of getting the job done effectively.
The government is to streamline some of its programmes designed to lift people out of poverty in an effort to cut red tape and remove barriers to community funding.A series of recommendations have been put forward with the aim of helping local projects to deliver services more effectively to some of the country’s most deprived areas. They have been drawn up after a year-long review of area based initiatives by the Regional Co-Ordination Unit.
Local authority social services departments are facing an increasingly tough environment in which to deliver their services but they have to ensure they find ways to sort out how to help potential customers quickly. Those are the findings of a report by the Audit Commission and the Social Services Inspectorate which have jointly reviewed 30 councils in the last year. Several authorities were performing well and most had good quality services for some users but, says the report, a number of the reviews had disappointing outcomes.The document, entitled ‘Tracking The Changes’, also points to the key role of local councilors in bringing about the necessary changes.
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