15/10/2012 Inside Out North East and Cumbria

In the next half an hour, we reveal how the North East is the meanest

region in Britain when it comes to looking after older people. I have

paid all my life for anything that's to pay for. I'm still paying.

Is there a radical solution? How would you feel about a man? I

thought, "A man? Why not." Putting Tyneside on the telly - the man

with high hopes for his Geordie sitcom gives us a sneak preview.

am trying to show the North East that I grew up, maybe the stuff

that we are not proud of, but it does exist.

Our stories from our part of the When Inside Out uncovered a

catalogue of neglect in Southern Cross homes, lots of you told us it

was down to cost. With elderly, vulnerable people being treated

like commodities. The company has since collapsed. With councils

cutting their budgets, I want toe know whether the same thing could

be happening all over again, only this time in your own home.

They are a funding time bomb and they are among the hardest hit by

cuts. You are about to see what some say is the reality of care

paid for by councils. It is rubbish. You wouldn't want it for your

family. I wouldn't want it for mine. With services being cut, can

councils afford to take care of elderly people any more? Darlington

is no different to any other town. Here, financial pressures on the

council are hitting pensioners. Having a bath used to be cheap

because it was subsidised by the council and the local Primary Care

Trust. Home bathing would have been �2.20. Now we provide at �13.

is a massive difference. It is. This is because of the council

cutting the funding? Yes. It's one way in which council cuts are

biting. The clients are up in arms. I have paid all my life for

anything that's to pay for. I'm still paying. I want to dig deeper.

I have heard that across the North elderly people are at risk and it's

all down to cost-cutting. This is such an important issue. People

don't want to go on camera because they are worried it might

compromise the care of their loved one, or they might lose their job.

Mostly, the complaints are about home care, to help you stay

independent in your own home. It's often paid for by councils but

contracted-out to private companies. I have spoken with a home care

worker in the North East who says frontline staff are under massive

pressure. Again, they were worried that speaking on camera might harm

their career. Their words are spoken by an actor. You didn't have

enough time between jobs. They would ring you up and say, "Such

and such has rang in sick, can you squeeze another job in?" You would

be rushing. I always like to give them the full time and the best

care possible. We have been told carers are working up to 60 hours a

week on the minimum wage. A lot of the staff have left. The clients

get worried because they worry about, with the staff leaving, will

the company close down? Elizabeth's mum gets home care. It is full care.

Elizabeth wanted to stay anonymous for the protection of her mum. What

things have caused you concern with your mother's care? I think hygiene

standards definitely. Using the same flannel to wash her face and

then her bottom, and then using it on her face. It is unacceptable.

More poor care. Francis has memory problems and until this summer, she

was getting care paid for by the council. She was having three very

short visits a day from a variety of different people, so in a week

she could be seeing 10 to 20 people. The impact was to add to her

confusion. I wouldn't like to say it caused her to be depressed but

she became very depressed and I think it added to that. We are not

naming the companies because to be fair, the same problems crop up

over and over again pretty much everywhere. You need to read

inspection reports. Staff not adequately trained, records were

not accurate. Staff shortages were a problem. One person told them

that if their carer failed to turn up, they would be unable to eat or

drink or get up, get showered and dressed. It gets worse. There's one

company where 12 staff had no medication training. That is

exactly what we heard about another company. The one our whistleblower

worked for. Some people are not doing a proper medication course.

Anybody that's giving medication that isn't trained to a certain

degree is going to make a mistake. To me, it is an accident waiting to

happen. There are perhaps even more serious concerns. At Age UK they

have rejected job applicants because they failed a criminal

records check. You wouldn't want them in your service or dealing

with relatives of yours. They might have a track record of anything

from fraud, abuse - it is horrifying that they could go on to

another company that doesn't do the CRB checks in the same way. It is

clear some companies don't. This is a report by inspectors of a company

on Tyneside. There, they found two members of staff who hadn't been

CRB-checked. "This could put people at risk" said the inspectors. So

what's it down to? Well, this, apparently. I have heard that to

save money some councils are driving down the hourly rate they

pay companies to carry out home care. The UK Homecare Association

have been looking into the average amount they pay across Britain.

would seem the North East is the worst in our survey at �10.94 an

hour. Our view, that is not enough to deliver the right quality of

service and that has to change. Other areas could be spending up to

�13 an hour. Our councils are the most tight-fisted in Britain.

Christine Savage and Bob Nelson set up a care agency because they

thought local authorities were doing things on the cheap. We have

heard that in one big local authority in our region they are

looking for providers to work for �10 an hour and there isn't enough

money in �10 an hour to recruit and train and pay and manage decent

quality staff. It is not feasible. That is �10 to the company, not the

carer who may be on the minimum wage. If the North East is paying

the lowest, we understand that at least one council is thinking of

cutting the amount of money? Well, that's shameful. It used to be

quality was at the top of the list. In our survey, 74% of providers

said cost is the main factor in delivering the service. I have got

hold of a confidential document which backs this up. It belongs to

a North East council and it explains the tendering process on

one particular contract for elderly people. The charity that's put in a

bid that by far and away is better on quality. But the way its

weighted it went to a company that put in a bid at a much lower cost.

In this case, quality is not as important as the price. So while

councils look to pay less, older people are paying more for services

like day-care. I have a few savings, I pay full price, which is

somewhere around �35 a day. Why do we have to pay now? It's the

Government who have to cut costs! Why is it the pensioners all the

time? I want to get answers from the organisation that speaks for

all councils on this issue. The North East has come out as being

the meanest region when it comes to this. Some councils are talking

about cutting �10 per hour? It is up against the wire. There will be

councils who are doing that reluctantly, and they will be doing

it because they are looking at their budgets, or maybe their

corporate procurement teams are thinking it must be like buying

pencils, let's use economies of scales. We have heard examples of

workers having to squeeze jobs in to their day, people not having

proper medication training. They are not what we want to see. There

are different reasons why those things happen. Sometimes it is

because the councils push the price too low. Sometimes it is because a

provider is trying to eke a profit out. Who are you looking to?

looking to the Government. previous Care Minister said the

Government is blocking funding for social care, so what does the

current Minister think? I have been going to great lengths to get hold

of him for an interview and it looks like it's worked. We have a

system that is creaking. We need to reform how people are cared for.

That requires money. Isn't it the case that the councils haven't got

enough and you should be funding it better? Well, we've provided an

extra �7.5 billion over the four- year period, along with providing

extra resources. It's also really important that we use the money as

effectively as possible. We know that doesn't always happen. We know

that sometimes you have a race to the bottom with the cheapest

provider coming up with, or winning the contract. That thing is not

appropriate. Can councils afford to provide decent care for elderly

people in their own homes? Yes, they can. If we can be smarter at

the way we use money, there is enough money available in the

system to guarantee that people as they grow old can grow old with

the middle are the elderly. Often victims of poor care, of Government

and council cuts, at a time when they feel they are losing service

after service after service. They are left asking one question. It's

a problem that is only going to get worse as the number of older people

grows. Can we find the care we want without depending on Government or

council coffers? The BBC's Home Editor has been on the hunt for

some novel solutions. I wonder what it is like to be 80.

If I lived that long, who is going to be there to care for me? Who is

going to pay the bill? They are questions we all ask. You can spend

almost everything before the state steps in. I am in York because in

this city, some of the elder I will have clubbed together to share the

risk. It is a simple idea. Before you get too old, you can apply to

a community run by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation where residents

know that if or when they need nursing care, it is available on

site at no extra charge. It is not easy to get in. You have to pass a

medical and one of the leasehold bungalows needs to be vacant. It

pays to apply early. Look at that. You made the decision to come here

at 61? It was quite easy. We came here because my parents had died

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

and suddenly we were the youngest. There were people 14 years older

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

Residents pay into a communal pot. In return, they can be confident

that whatever happens to them, they won't get clobbered with care fees

they can't afford. All those worries that everybody has about

what happens. You have answered them? We know where our care will

take place. And probably where we will die. That is great. We can

tick that box and get on with living! Of course, as the residents

get older, they are more likely to use the site's care facilities. You

have been paying in all this time? That's right. Paying over the odds

while you were well, but now you are getting a bit back? It seems

wasting one's money, but it wasn't. Hartrigg Oaks is a local solution

to what many would argue should be a national state responsibility,

paying for the care of our elderly. The plain fact is that at the time

of cuts to public services, the politicians cannot agree on where

they are going to find the money. The issue 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 too ridiculous to imagine na the answer is to put

taxes up so we can -- that the answer is to put taxes up so we can

pay and look after our elderly? isn't ridiculous. It's ridiculous

politically because nobody will touch it with a bargepole. With

taxpayers 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 have come to Essex

to see one of the country's 100 homeshares in action, an idea very

popular on the Continent. husband died in 2002. I have had

rheumatoid for 20 years. Then gradually I found I was getting

worse. My daughter did some research and I came up with share

and care. She said, "How would you feel about a man?" I thought, "A

man? A man! Why not?" 80-year-old Iona was matched with 45-year-old

Graham, an NHS worker. It will come to me! For the last two years, they

have lived alongside each other in Iona's home. He lives rent-free in

return for spending around ten hours a week helping out. You see

the advert, it says, "This is not going to be a flatshare with

another NHS worker, this will be living with an older person..."

Taking care of the chickens, doing some shopping, mowing the lawn, a

few repairs. A bit of company. own house? Exactly. I wanted to

stay here. I love my house. I intend to be carried out in my

coffin from here. You don't have a - it is free board and lodging in

return for some chores kind of relationship. You have become

friends? We are friends. He has been amazing. He has given me my

life, my quality of life. We laugh. He makes me roar with laughter.

Sometimes I make you roar! When you tell a dirty joke! LAUGHTER It is

so nice when you see something that works as well as that does, it is

not for everybody. Clearly, the older person needs to have a spare

room and their needs, they can't be too severe. Thirdly, perhaps most

importantly, the characters have to be right to get that kind of

special relationship. So, it is an answer, but it is not the answer.

Over on the Isle of Wight, there is a unique social experiment being

piloted. It is called Care4Care. Again, the idea is simple. For

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

neighbours, they build-up an hour's worth of care credit that they can

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

One of the youngest of the 150 members who have signed up for the

squeem is 36-year-old Lewis who has been help -- scheme is 36-year-old

Lewis who has been helping out Pearl. I would like to think that

those hours are banked to go to helping my mother or helping myself

and if and when I need it. It can encourage you so much to actually

get out there and do something. Care4Care is the brainchild of

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

care crisis. I hope that over the next three years, we will build it

into quite a large national scheme. I hope that there might be a

million members. The problem is whether the next generation is

sufficiently keen to ensure safety in their own age to invest the

hours which would buy them their care pension. In Westminster, 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 prospect

of growing old. If you would like to tell me about

your stories, you can e-mail at [email protected].

Whatever happened to the likely lads? It is a good question. When

it comes to comedy, Geordie humour has been a rarity on-screen. Until

now. The Office put Slough on the map. So could Hebburn do the same

for South Tyneside? Chris Connel I'm trying to show the North East

that I grew up in. I have the weight of a whole region on me

shoulders. There will be a lot of pressure. Jason Cook has created a

sitcom with an all-star cast and he has set it here, in his hometown.

The results will be watched by millions and it could change his

life forever and it should put this place on the map. Action!

programme is billed as a warm tale of North East family life. It is a

series of six half-hour shows. have never been to Newcastle before.

We are in Hebburn! Hebburn is where dreams come to die. I can't see

anything wrong with this place. Watch this! Big Keith, formal wear

this evening? Shirt's in the wash, man! Me shirt! It's called Hebburn.

It's got a stellar cast, great writing and a production team with

a proven track record of delivering hit shows. Can they turn a comedy

set into a nationwide hit? It's been done before, but a long time

ago. # Whatever happened to you... #

There was a culture up here and a humour and an existence between the

image of an industrial landscape and coal mines and shipbuilding.

Since then, the North East has spawned a good many comedians who

have hit the big time, including this pair. Wait for me, man!

years ago, the BBC made another comedy show set here. I'm sure you

all remember Breeze Block? No? I do. I was in it! Briefly. That's me on

the left with a little bit more hair. I have brought you a cigar.

Canny. Broadcast on BBC Choice, Breeze Block was set in Newcastle.

He is having trouble with his confidence. He has to take therapy.

Go on, Dad. A year later, along came another great comedy set in

the region. That's enough of that. Spool forward eight years, the BBC

is back in the North East hoping this time it's hit comedy gold. It

is banking on a script by a stand- up comedian called Jason Cook.

is trying to show the North East that I grew up in. It is funny. The

other bit is the stuff that we are all really proud of - the sense of

family values, making the best of bad news. As well as writing it,

Jason stars in it, in fact most of the cast are from the North East.

All right? What you after? I want to use North East talent. You

wouldn't believe how many people try and fake a Geordie accent? "Why

you know, man, we're going to go to Gregg's!" This is my first one of

these that I have ever done. I don't know - I am still learning.

Everyone's laughed at us because I don't understand. There's a lot of

people looking at it knowing it is the next North East one. We are

both playing those girls, Geordie Shore, those girls that are in the

public eye at the minute. You look proper lush! We are trying to be

much more even-handed and respectful about playing them, not

just being extreme and representing them as loose women who drink too

much. What was it about the writing that got you interested? It is

funny and very moving at the same time. It can go from a funny thing

to a really sad scene, just like that. We can't afford to keep your

gran in the retirement village. She is going to move in here with us.

Jack will come up over the next few weekends and he will convert the

sitting room into the bedroom. I? Didn't spot that in my diary. I

would love to help. I've got my book on the weekends. You can read

your book any time. Son, I need you to do this. All the location

filming, the outside stuff, was done in Hebburn. Jack, you back?

would appear so. This your lass? Aye! Hebburn is great as a film set,

great locations. We got a lot of funny looks. We paint a very

positive picture of Hebburn. have had hundreds of people come to

watch us film. The response has been incredible. The cast are only

spending a week here. They are doing most of the filming in this

studio down here in Manchester. They have reconstructed the house

where Jason grew up. We lived in this one, number 12. This is the

sitting room. We have all the family pictures that we have had

mocked up. Got to have a hostess trolley and two papers with a

border in the middle! Why the early retirement? There comes a time in a

man's life when he has to take a long, hard look... At his test

results! Your Dad's heart is knackered! Action! The programme

was produced for the BBC by Baby Cow. According to the man who

commissioned the show, it had to be made in the North West. We made a

quick commissioning decision. It meant the production company had to

galvanise themselves into action very quickly. We did use North East

crew and on-screen talent. We have shown Hebburn. It would be nice to

spend more time up there. The North East is about to have another

moment! I hope the series is successful. I have heard it is

really good. What it will do, if anything, is put a spotlight on the

forgotten landscape of the North East. Some would say that Hebburn

plays to a few stereotypes and they are not trying to glamorise life up

here. I am more than happy to celebrate the fact that a warm

sitcom will be able to showcase all the great talent in the North East.

But clearly not all! I'm not in it! I didn't get that phone call. I was

probably busy! It will be rubbish anyway!

You can catch Hebburn on BBC2 this Thursday night. That is it from us