87-year-old blind woman left without home help!

Ivan Lewis MP (standing) talks to Susan Coates (on Mr Lewis' right) and Ellen Wintle-Yates (to Mr Lewis' left) with Simon Danczuk (standing - back), Debbie Abrahams (far left) and Councillor Linda Robinson (far right) listening

Minister for Care Services Ivan Lewis MP was scathing during his visit to Rochdale about the level of adult care provided by Rochdale Council and called on the regulator to get tough with councils "letting people down". Mr Lewis was reacting to seeing and hearing for himself the heart-rending consequences of individual cases, including the case of an 87-year-old blind woman left without home help. He said: "The council has a duty to support the elderly, the disabled and those with learning disabilities and the fact that Rochdale Council recently lost a star and became a one star council for adult care shows it is failing in that duty."

Mr Lewis met Ellen Wintle-Yates who cares for her 87-year-old aunt. Mrs Wintle-Yates aunt suffers from macular degeneration, and is almost blind as a result, and has had council provided home care help for many years. That was until recently when Mrs Wintle-Yates received 24 hours notice that care would no longer be provided for her frail 87-year-old aunt. A clearly exhausted Mrs Wintle-Yates explained to Mr Lewis that with so little notice it was very difficult to arrange for alternative help, and though she had managed to do so, she was unable to relax on the much needed holiday she was due to go on. Mrs Wintle-Yates now has little choice but to pay for private help for her aunt.

Mr Lewis was aghast at how this could happen and asked Labour parliamentary candidate Simon Danczuk to assist Heywood Councillor Linda Robinson, in whose ward Mrs Wintle-Yates aunt lives, to help her. He was even more taken aback when Mrs Wintle-Yates revealed that she also cares for her elderly father who is suffering from dementia, and shoulders this dual burden despite suffering badly from rheumatoid arthritis herself.

Another carer, Susan Coates, recounted a recent example of the care, or rather as she explained lack of care, provided for her elderly mother who is suffering from the effects of a stroke. The agency employed by Rochdale Council to provide help for Mrs Coates mother, and in particular to cook for her as she is unable to do so for herself, sent a young woman who did not know how to even cook an egg! Mrs Coates said the agency had since written to her and said that the young woman has now been "trained to cook".

Mr Lewis also met Susan Gilmore and her elderly disabled mother Vera who are frightened of the deterioration in the help provided for Mrs Gilmore but even more frightened of making a formal complaint for fear of the consequences for future care.

Mrs Gilmore needs daily help to get up, get washed and dressed, have meals cooked and get undressed and back to bed. Her daughter provides some of this care and until recently the extra help needed was provided, "superbly" they said, by Rochdale Council's in house adult care service. However, since the announcement that adult care services are to be outsourced to private companies, the quality of care has deteriorated drastically, on some days it can be past 10am when help arrives to get Mrs Gilmore out of bed. Worse still there have been days when her carer has not turned up at all. Daughter Susan Gilmore explained that one weekend in January no carer turned up all weekend and had she not been around to check on her mother she would have been stuck in bed all weekend.

Mrs Susan Gilmore said: "I complained to Colin Beech at the council but he did not have the courtesy to answer me, he passed me onto Stephen Hopkinson. I spoke to him a fortnight ago and he promised to ring me back - I am still waiting."

She also explained the unfeasibly short time that carers have to carry out their duties; the time allocated to get Mrs Gilmore out of bed, washed, dressed and cook her breakfast is just 35 minutes.

Asked whether the government could help by providing more money, Mr Lewis said the government had given Rochdale the most generous settlement it had ever had and an additional £4.5 Million funding to help develop social care systems. He said: "More money is not the answer, Rochdale has the money, the problem is that the money is not being spent wisely. The fault lies with poor quality leadership and it is important the council gets its act together.

"Other councils in even more deprived areas are coping with similar challenges to Rochdale; it is a matter of accepting what is wrong, taking responsibility and putting it right."