£4.9m package for help to stay at home

In Wales, the Deputy Minister for Housing and Regeneration, Jocelyn Davies AM, has announced a £4.9m Wales-wide package to provide practical help for older and disabled people to remain in their own homes.

The funding has been awarded to Care and Repair Cymru and to the individual Care and Repair agencies across Wales. The service helps older people and people with disabilities to repair, improve and adapt their homes to enable them to continue living in them by offering a range of services including:

• advice about housing options
• advice on funding and technical matters
• practical assistance in completing forms, finding a reliable builder, arranging plans and schedules of work and inspecting the quality of building work
• co-ordination of all the services needed to successfully complete the work
• provision of direct in-house fast-track solutions

Jocelyn Davies said: "Care and Repair provides a valuable service that allows older and disabled people across Wales to continue living safely and independently in their own homes for as long as possible. Simple adaptations to a person's home, such as adding grab rails or improved steps, can have a huge impact on their quality of life. As well as health and social care, Care and Repair also has an important role to play in the Assembly Government's affordability and sustainability agendas. Allowing older people to remain in their own homes in comfort and security, through a varied programme of repairs and adaptations, not only enhances the health and emotional well-being of individuals but also in improving their homes, makes communities more cohesive and sustainable. This funding settlement, which represents a 9.47% increase on the current financial year, will enable Care and Repair to continue the crucial work they do in the community."

Gwenda Thomas, Deputy Minister for Social Services, said: The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to improving the lives of older people by ensuring that the older generation live independently for as long as they choose. People are living longer and should also be able to enjoy a decent quality of life. Through this investment more people can be supported to stay at home, where they would wish to be. The funding also helps older people return to their own homes sooner after spending time in hospital. This is an example of how the Welsh Assembly Government is working to improve the care for patients and tackle delayed transfers of care."

In 2008/09 Care & Repair Agencies in Wales:

Helped 33,602 people through Care & Repair services

Of the clients helped (58%) received a caseworker/technical officer visit

For these clients 50,037 jobs were completed

2,860 of clients said they would have been unable to stay in their own homes without the assistance of Care & Repair

Over 59% of Care & Repair services were provided for clients over 75, and 22% of total clients helped were over 85.

If even 2.5% of the 48,492 people helped would otherwise have had to move into residential or nursing home care, the cost to the state would have been 48,492 x 2.5% x 52 weeks x £450 (average cost of 1 week in residential care) = £26.37million. If further allowance is made for additional (and unnecessary) hospital admissions, this figure would increase substantially. We must weigh this against the £259,048 spent, at an average £214 cost of a job undertaken by Care & Repair services, that has assisted in avoiding this cost to statutory services.

2010/11 allocations