15/10/2012 Inside Out East

By 2030, 60% more people across the East will be over 70. How will we

care for them? You've got to really love somebody. It is hard, very

hard. You need all the help you can get. With less public money to go

round, we meet the people who care for free. And we look at a radical

solution being tried in Essex that doesn't cost taxpayers a penny.

quality of life has risen like that. We laugh, he makes me roar with

laughter. Sometimes I make you roar with laughter. Yes, when you tell

dirty jokes. And he's in the running for the top job within the

Church of England. The Bishop of Norwich shows us what a bishop

really does. They are the stories that matter where we live here, in

Hello, welcome to the start of the new series. I'm in Cromer on the

North Norfolk coast. With more and more of us living longer, and less

public money going round, caring for those in need is a huge

challenge and later we'll be looking at some radical solutions.

First, where better to see the scale of the problem than here,

where over a third of the population are over 65. We have

been to see how families and the local council are facing the

challenge. Who are you? I'm Debbie, you know that. I am the lady that

Julia Earwaker has dementia. Four hours a week, a paid carer comes to

give her husband Peter a break. For the rest of the time, he has to

care for her. She can't remember things, which has got a lot worse.

She doesn't always know who I am. She does use terms of endearment

towards me, so there is a little something there all the time. She's

very confused, can't use the telephone, I have to take her to

Lots of things like that. She sleeps a lot, gets tired very

quickly and she is becoming Like Julia, the majority of people

who need care, receive it at home. Her care is provided by a private

company and costs about �17 an hour. Peter pays for it himself.

funding it by an insurance policy we paid into when I took early

retirement in 1995. We didn't spend a lot of money on other things so

we thought this would be a good thing to put by for. If you hadn't?

I wouldn't even contemplate it. most people rely on care paid for

by their local authority. This is Sheringham on the Norfolk coast.

North Norfolk has the highest proportion of elderly people in the

region, but like all councils, Norfolk County Council are cutting

their budget, including the budget Norfolk's Adult Social Care Budget

of �213 million is being cut this year by more than 9%. Most of the

care is delivered for Local Authorities by private companies.

Even before the cuts, some of the companies struggled to provide a

good level of service. According to one carer, the squeeze on budgets

at her previous employer often gave her less than 15 minutes with

clients. In your old job, when you got up to work in the morning, how

did you feel? I'd feel sick, I'd look at my rota. There would be 15

calls on there. I know I couldn't do my job properly because of the

time restrictions. Some of the calls are quite short. 15-30

minutes. The calls would be back to back. If I finished a call at 9 am,

my next call would start at 9am in the morning. It could take me 10 or

15 minutes to travel to that call at that time of day. I could only

do the best I could. We had no choice but to cut corners. Even

when the care is commissioned from private companies, the local

authority, in this case, Norfolk Is 15 minutes enough time to spend

with an elderly person? 15 minutes is not enough time to spend with an

elderly person and we don't commission 15 minute calls except

for check calls. We try not to ensure and programme work in a way.

There are occasions if someone is checking an older person, it is

reasonable to have a 15 minute call. We can't just carry on delivering.

We have to change the way we think about that. There is something

The reality is that the vast majority of carers are unpaid

friends and relatives. Peter is one of them. I am Julia's primary carer.

If she wants to go to the toilet, if she wakes up in the night, I

have to take her and look after her. You can become really tired, lose

motivation. Having people come in like this, it helps to keep you

going. I desperately want her to be at home. Using official figures,

we've calculated that in 30 years time, more than a quarter of the

population is likely to be cared for, or will be caring for

relatives, unpaid. Is it appropriate that anything within

the scope of this care falls within the remit of volunteers? Maybe

there is. This is about communities and communities are about people

living together supporting each other. I'm not suggesting we hand

formal care over. We are not changing our eligibility criteria

for that. People should be provided with as much support early on so

that it delays the time they need formal care. The government

minister responsible for care services is Norman Lamb, the MP for

North Norfolk, where almost a third of his constituents are over 65.

How can you expect councils to support more people without giving

them more money? What's happening in my own constituency shows the

challenges. The government has a responsibility to ensure older

people have the care they need so they can grow old in dignity and

respect. We have to find the carers available to look after those older

people. Part of it will be the family's responsibility. We all

take responsibility for our loved ones. The state is there to make

sure it works effectively but also to provide support where a family

isn't available and people would otherwise not get the care and

support needed. There is a big gap between telling local authorities

That is why it is important to reform the system. Government has

already shifted some resources across from the NHS to support care

services. We've, in total, put in �7.2 billion over a four year

period to ensure people get the care services they need. We have

this crazy situation of a silo with social care and a separate one with

health care. They don't see two different systems, they just want

to be cared for. No political party of any persuasion in government is

in a position to throw more money at this problem. It is about making

sure the money we have is spent to best effect so older people get the

care they need. If there is no more public money available to help pay

for care, then, if we all want more or better care, it's going to be up

to ourselves to pay for it, or our The scale of the problem is big and

getting bigger, and increasingly the burden will fall on people like

Peter. And if you think this will never happen to you, he has some

advice. Get your head out of the sand. It will hit you between the

eyes like a steam train. The biggest thing about all of it is,

it is hard. You've got to really love someone to do this. I know

that I am loved back in return. It is hard, very hard. You need all

You are watching Inside Out East. Later in the programme, we will

have a fascinating insight into the world of a 21st Century Bishop.

What is the most unusual request for prayer that you have ever come

I think the most tragic is when a child has run away from home and

there is a prayer request left and you don't know the background of it

and can't contact that person. That Before we meet the bishop, let's go

back to that tough question of how we care for an ageing population.

Can we find new ways that don't cost anything? Mark Easton has been

to see where that is already What it is like to be 80? If I live

that long, who's going to be there to care for me when I can't manage?

And who is going to pay the bill? They're questions we all ask,

because none of us can know how much it's all going to cost and you

can spend almost everything before the state steps in. But I'm here in

York because in this city, some of the elderly have clubbed together

It's a simple idea. Before you get too decrepit, you can apply to live

out your days at Hartrigg Oaks, a community run by the Joseph

Rowntree Foundation where residents know that if or when they need

nursing care, it's available on site at no extra charge. It's not

easy to get in, though. You have to pass a medical. And one of the

leasehold bungalows needs to be vacant. It pays to apply early. I'm

53 and you made the decision to come here at 61. Well it was quite

easy for us, because we came here because my parents had died, and

suddenly we were the oldest people in our family. We came here and

suddenly we were the youngest! So, there were people 40 years older

than me! Hartrigg Oaks offers peace of mind to those who can afford it.

Residents pay into a communal pot, something like �170 pounds a month

for a 60-year-old, a little bit more if you join later. In return

they can be confident that whatever happens to them, they won't get

clobbered with care fees they can't afford. You're paying effectively

care insurance. You pay the same sum, effectively year on year, with

small increases which covers your care however much you need. So when

you're fit, OK, you pay over the odds, when you need major care you

don't pay a penny more for it. those worries that everybody has

about what happens, you've answered them? We know where our care will

take place, where we'll live when we're crumbling and probably where

we'll die. And to me that's great. We've ticked that box, we can get

on with living. Of course, as the residents here get older, they're

more likely to use the site's care facilities. 85 year-old Theodore

has lived at Hartrigg since it opened, 14 years ago. This year,

his wife spent over six weeks in the care home and while she was

being looked after, he also dipped into the communal pot for the first

time. I was offered and found to my surprise it was very welcome care

in our bungalow. So you've been paying in all this time,

effectively paying over the odds while you were well but now you're

getting a bit back? So it seems Seems to me that Hartrigg Oaks is a

local solution to what many would argue should be a national, state

responsibility, paying for the care of our elderly. But the plain fact

is that at a time of cuts to public services, the politicians right now

simply cannot agree on where they're going to find the money. So

the issue just keeps getting kicked into the long grass. The truth is

that, despite the recession, Britain is still many times richer

in real terms than it was when today's pensioners were born. We

can afford to look after them, but in Westminster, seasoned

politicians will tell you that priorities lie elsewhere. Is it

just too ridiculous to imagine that the answer to this is just to put

taxes up so we can actually pay to look after our elderly? It isn't

ridiculous to suggest that we should use the tax system

progressively to look after and care for people in old age. It's

ridiculous politically because nobody will touch it with a barge

pole. Why not? Because people are scared of arguing about tax and

spend. They're scared of the consequences at the moment of the

economic impact of course, in terms of further depression of our

So with taxpayers apparently unable or unwilling to pay for the

increasing care demands of the elderly, the search is on for ways

to provide help without the need for large amounts of public money.

I've come to Wickford in Essex to see one of the country's hundred or

so home shares in action, an idea already very popular on the

continent. My husband died in 2002. I've had rheumatoid for about 20

years. And then gradually I found I was getting worse. My daughter did

some research and came up with Share and Care. She rang up one day

and said how would you feel about a man? And I thought, a man? A man?

80 year-old Iona was matched with 45 year-old Graham, an NHS worker.

Crikey. What's the next one? It'll come to me. Liberace! For the last

two years, they've lived alongside each other here in Iona's home. The

deal is that he lives rent free in return for spending around 10 hours

a week helping out. You see the advert and it says, OK, this is not

going to be a flat share with another NHS worker, this is going

to be living with an older person. Live-in carer, taking care of the

chickens, doing some shopping, mowing the lawn, a few repairs and

bits and bobs, a bit of company. It's allowed you to stay here in

your own home? Well, exactly. I desperately wanted to stay here. I

love my house, I intend to be carried out in my coffin from here.

You don't have a free board and lodging in return for some chore's

relationship. You've become friends! We're friends. He has been

absolutely amazing, he's given me my life, my quality of life has

risen like that, we laugh, he makes me roar with laughter and sometimes

I make you roar with laughter. when you tell dirty jokes! You know

it's so nice when you see something that clearly works as well as that

does. It's not for everybody. Clearly the older person needs to

have a spare room and their needs I think can't be too severe and

thirdly and perhaps most importantly, the characters have to

be right to get that kind of special relationship. So it is an

answer, but it's not the answer. need an imaginative, joined-up

holistic answer that mobilises and supports families with caring, that

gets the community involved, that gets younger older people who are

still active as part of the And over on the Isle of Wight,

there's a unique social experiment being piloted that aims to do just

that. It's called Care 4 Care and, again, the idea is simple. For

every hour of voluntary care that people put in for their elderly

neighbours, they build up an hours' worth of care credit that they can

keep in a timebank and then use for their own care later in life.

Pearl, how are you today? One of the youngest of the 150 or so

members who've signed up for the pilot scheme is 36-year old Lewis,

who's been helping out 87 year-old, Pearl. I've been coming to see

Pearl for about six months now. I've notched up 20 hours and I

would like to think that those hours are banked to go towards

either helping my mother or helping myself if and when I need it. It

can encourage you so much to actually get out there and do

something. The thing is my fingers, the top joint doesn't go over, so

therefore I can't pick up things properly. I spend quite a lot of

time talking to him and he talks to me but that's a big help to me

because people don't come. Care4Care is the brainchild of

Professor Heinz Woolf, who hopes it will play a key part in solving the

care crisis. I hope that over the next three years or so, we will

build it into quite a large national scheme. I hope to achieve

mass conversions to Care4Care. I hope there might be a million

members. The problem is whether the next generation is sufficiently

keen to ensure safety in the own age to invest the hours which would

buy them their care pension. Here in Westminster of course, the talk

is all about cuts and austerity, not spending billions more caring

for our elderly. So the responsibility falls on wider

society, on communities, on neighbourhoods, on families, to

fill that gap and help all of us feel more confident about the

There will be more on the issues of elderly care on your radio station

On Inside Out, we like to get to know the people at the centre of

our communities and we've been allowed to spend a few days with

The Right Reverend Graham James, better known as the Bishop of

Norwich, and he's also one of the front runners for the top job

Just before half seven in the morning and the Bishop of Norwich

heads to the Cathedral for morning Bishop Graham is one of the front

runners to land the most important job in the Church of England, the

post of Archbishop of Canterbury. It would be very odd to say you

didn't doubt because the nature of faith isn't as a certainty. There

are times when you don't feel connected with God and that is one

of the reasons why the life of the Priest contains these significant

times of prayer every day to keep in contact with the tradition, to

make sure it is a discipline. Bishop, who's now 61, went to

school in Northampton before going to University where he got a degree

in history. It was there that he decided to enter the church. He

became Bishop of Norwich 12 years ago. These are the prayer requests

that were left here yesterday afternoon which we include in the

intercession. I am having a look. What is the most unusual request

I think the most tragic is when a child has run away from home and

there is a prayer request left and you don't know the background of it

and can't contact the person. That is the most distressing. You get

prayers for animals. It is hard to The point of prayer is the same

point as saying to somebody who you love, I love you. That doesn't make

you love each other more. It is to do with the relationship. If the

relationship is that close and if it is grounded in a sense of love

and worship, of course, it alters the way in which you live and the

way in which you respond to things. It sensitises you to God's presence.

As you'd imagine, the Bishop spends a lot of time in church, but that's

only part of his job. As well as lots of church administrative work,

the Bishop regularly goes out on visits to the community. A warm

welcome to Bishop Graham who is the Bishop of Norwich. He is to share

most of our morning with us. This is St William's Primary school in

Norwich. A pupil asks him about becoming the next Archbishop of

Canterbury. Are you really in the running for the Archbishop of

Canterbury? So people tell me but Home for the Bishop is this grand

house in the grounds of the Norwich Cathedral. The Bishop shares the

house with his wife, a nurse at a local hospice. The couple have two

grown up children. Some people think you live a privileged life.

How does that square with being in touch with the people? You are not

given a large house to luxuriate in, you are given it to use. There will

be a lot of people here later today for a reception, for meetings and

one of the things that is historic about this garden, is that it has

been around for a very long time. It is in the heart of Norwich and I

am very glad that on almost every weekend during the summer, hundreds

of people come and money is raised for different charities. There is a

sense of sharing this place with a host of other people. A bishop is

given and should be given to The Bishop is one of the most

senior figures in the Church of England and is one of the

favourites to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury, but

although he may be a front runner, he's adamant it's not a job he

wants to do. I have made it quite clear that my view is that I am

best placed to continue here as Bishop of Norwich. One of the

glories of the Church of England is you don't put in applications for

anything but you can express your views. I think the Archbishop's job

is a vast one. It has a number of different roles. It is one which

has very little power but a huge amount of expectation. Also, given

travel around the rest of the community, it is physically

demanding. When Rowan Williams said you need the constitution of an ox,

he was not far out. The Bishop has a small team of people to help him

carry out his work, one of them is the Bishop's Chaplain, the Reverend

Simon Ward. As a person, he is very clever, immensely perceptive. He

has got a memory like an elephant. He doesn't forget things and

retains vast amounts of information. He is not especially academic but

he is very sharp, very perceptive, remembers things. He has that

ability to digest the things that need to be remembered.

Although he's no desire to lead the church, it doesn't mean the Bishop

is shy about speaking on controversial issues. He's in

favour of Women Bishops, although less keen on the idea of gay

marriages. But what does the Bishop do in his down time? I love to go

to the theatre, I love watching cricket. It is fantastic to go to

Lord's in the summer. If I had a more ordered life, I would take

part in more amateur dramatics. Both my wife and I a engaged in

amateur dramatics before this happened. In retirement, I am

looking forward to getting back into a drama group.

Within the diocese of Norwich, as I go around, I find an enormous

amount of affection for bishop Graham. People know they have a

bishop who respects, who trusts and has that ability to say the right

thing at the right time and to address people in the right way.

The Book of Common Prayer was imposed by bishops on some very

unwilling congregations. So, although he says he doesn't

want to be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, would he actually

refuse if he was asked? I just don't think it is something that I

seriously have considered as a possibility for a host of different

reasons. It is not an ambition, it's the subject of a good deal of

prayer and a lot of thought. My expectation is that the Crown

nominations Commission will have the good sense to appoint somebody

We should find out who gets the job in the next couple of months. If

you've missed any of tonight's programme, its it is on the iPlayer.

If you think there is anything you think we should investigate, send

us an e-mail. You can tweet me. That is it from Cromer in Norfolk,

joined the next week when we will be looking into these stories in

the east. We investigate just how many of our treasures are being

stolen from museums across the East. We reveal just how close this