(Update - Greater London Authority's contribution is dance)
There is no money for social services, housing benefit or health but there is still a National Tennis Acadamy down the road and, I read £100 million for one of several unpopular higher education colleges to build a Cultural and Education District in Stratford. That's University College London that is 79th most popular out of 83 colleges for teaching economics. University of the Arts is the least popular of any higher education institution on unistats, using the Complete University Guide or Guardian University Guide to the figures. And Saddlers Wells, who dance apparently. Don't you want to string these people up from a lamp post? It's still illegal, but if you did it in artistic form to an orchestra you might get a grant for it.
You could write to them - there is a web site to find your GLA member who is probably Tony Arbour and send an email, or it can find london-wide assembly members as a list that you can compare against the GLA budget committee membership. I found one with a long-term interest in the arts who is on the committee and wrote to her. No reply after a week.
I have suggested to the GLA that they get their lobby briefs from these agencies checked and put them up for comment by the public before believing every word about public benefit and repeating every world class cliche.
Social services don't exist on a scale to match demand
It turns out that neither Richmond council's social services nor Richmond Rapid Response and Re-ablement Team exist on a scale to match demand. Council social services can find private visiting help and send a list of details, or manage it for a £50 weekly admin fee. They might offer a free assessment, and they can post a list of agencies which provide home visiting staff, leaving a patient or carer to check them against care quality commission reviews and find out the price.
Richmond Rapid Response and Re-Ablement team, part of a new local NHS trust, was unable to make appointments or keep-up with requests for decisions from West Middlesex hospital for most of 22nd of December 2017.
There used to be some kind of home service run from Barnes Hospital, but this doesn't appear to exist either
In a country that can afford Trident, MI5, and the Commonwealth Games with a local council that can afford new street furniture as part of a local village plan.
Can I have my tax back, please, if it is not going to be spent on sensible things?
Social care without social services
From someone who has to do a little bit of work as a carer, I understand this
There is a machine called a pivotelli that can open a pill box, ring a buzzer, and text a carer if the person who needs pills forgets to take them.
A simpler version from a couple of suppliers has no mobile texting system built-in
There is a flat-screen clock that displays day, date, and time in a simple way once set-up.
An offer of these, free at the point of delivery, to anyone suspected of bad memory problems by hospital staff or a GP, could automate some of the problem-solving that social services are asked to do. Patients differ, but if the things are doled-out to the wrong person, that's only about £100 cost and no great human stress, except maybe to the patient who has to turn the thing on and can't work-out how.
If anyone who works in social services could try to get together a list of tasks that need automating or simplifying by making free at the point of delivery, then I am sure a lot of the work could be reduced.
Lifts: I am no so sure about this idea but think there is something in it
Another relatively cheap solution is the fitting of a straight-line stair lift. These things are not very good. They are slow. They are beige. Frail people can fall-off them, so in some situations a carer could be needed as well as a lift. Wheelchairs do not slot-on to the things as far as I can see. But they are often available second-hand for next to nothing, and the ones that go round corners are only a few hundred pounds more.https://www.london.gov.uk/in-my-area/richmond-upon-thames
I suggest that everyone over the age of 70 or who is thought at risk of needing a stair lift should be offered one, with fitting, free. That way, when the time comes, they can come home from hospital with less work from social services (who don't exist) to get a lift fitted.
More practical is a through-floor lift, or one fitted out of doors. The price for a through-floor seems rather elastic. I heard of a quote of £11,000 for one delivered months after payment and after much pushing from an unstable company (British Homelifts), but the cutting of the hole in the floor and the assembly of large macano-like devices is contracted-out, and the lifts themselves from Pollock, Terry, Wessex, or ? Dolphin often come-round second-hand for free. About half the ads on ebay say in the small print that they are from contractors and that you can contact them for a quote to install.
http://www.for-sale.co.uk/through-floor-lift
There is a UK firm that makes in China called Stiltz as well. A lot of the skill seems to be assembling local contractors willing to cut a hole, install a lift, and check it works; the cost of the lift itself is not the problem.
On another subject I should mention this in a future post some time. Greater London Authority's page for Richmond on Thames
No comments:
Post a Comment