No images? Click here Inform & Advise IntroductionWelcome to the August 2021 edition of the Inform and Advise newsletter for local Age UKs/Cymrus. In this month’s newsletter we have got a range of articles and updates, including highlighting some new resources for I&A Managers on remote supervision of work, as well as on collaboration between Age UKs on I&A delivery. Hopefully you will get a chance for a break over the summer, and that your plans won’t be scuppered by being ‘pinged’ (or worse). After the joys and sorrows of the Euros, we now have the Olympics to excite us through August. John Edwards, Head of I&A Strategy If you have any questions about this bulletin, please contact Age UK on adviceunit@ageuk.org.uk Please note: some items in the Briefings are not relevant for partners in Wales; these are marked up in the Briefings. In this issue
New resources for I&A Managers on remote supervision and collaborationNew resources have been produced to support I&A Managers in delivering quality I&A services. The resources are:
We are also working on some resources on Triage and Assessment – we’ll share those soon. Update on I&A Review ProjectThe above resources have been produced as part of a refocused I&A Review Project, which has restarted after a hiatus during the pandemic. The following areas are the new focus of the Project:
We have created a new page on the loop here, where you can get a full update about the Project. We would love to hear your feedback on these new resources. Chloe Longmore, National Manager, I&A Review Project - chloe.longmore@ageuk.org.uk Resources for I&A Managers on dealing with distressed or challenging clients and supporting your advisersFollowing on from Lindsey Huggins’ excellent piece about how the Advice Line deals with vicarious trauma, that was published in Inform & Advise a couple of months ago, we’ve started to collate a collection of resources to support managers with the issues of dealing with distressed or challenging clients and supporting your advisers with the emotional impact these clients can have on them. The resource currently includes Lindsey’s article, mental health first aid and self-care resources that Age UK has promoted during the pandemic and advise sector specific resources that have been developed to support services working with ever more challenging clients. The resource can be found in the ‘I&A Service Manager Resources’ section of the loop Grants for older people availableFriends of the Elderly run a grants programme, whereby “referral agents” such as local Age UKs can apply for a small grant (normally up to £400) for older people who meet all of the following criteria:
Full details on how to apply for a grant can be found here: https://www.fote.org.uk/our-charity-work/grants-2/. Applications need to be made via a portal, and for your first new application on the portal you will need to register your organisation, this will only take a few minutes. After this, you will be able to use the 'fill from registration' button to auto complete your details for each new application. Health and Care Bill – Age UK Second Reading BriefingAge UK produced a briefing for MPs ahead of the Health and Care Bill’s second reading in the House of Commons. The Bill’s second reading took place on the 14th July. Here is a brief summary of the points we are making. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on older people’s mental and physical health. Age UK's research has found that older people are in more pain, are unable to walk as far and are more anxious following the pandemic. Age UK recently conducted a survey completed by over 14,000 older people, alongside representative polling with over 1,400 older people:
Older people have also told us about the struggle they have faced to access the treatment, care, and support they have needed over this period. However, these issues are not new. Older people have long reported feeling left behind by the health service, finding they have to wait until they are experiencing a crisis before they can get the help they need. A failure to provide comprehensive, proactive support in the community, whether that’s health or social care, leads to worse outcomes for older people and avoidable costs for the NHS. To ‘build back better’ after this pandemic, older people need timely access to high-quality health and care support. This makes the ambitions of the Health and Care Bill to improve health and care for all, with increased integration, very welcome. However, these ambitions risk being undermined because of the lack of serious social care reforms, which are absent from the Bill. The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the deep and systemic inadequacies of the current social care system, with catastrophic consequences for millions of older people, families, and carers. To improve health and social care for older people the Bill needs to deliver truly collaborative working across health, public health and social care, firmly focused on the needs of local populations. It cannot deliver its ambitions without an equal focus on valuing and developing the health and care workforce, supporting unpaid carers, and properly addressing health inequalities. Fundamentally, the vision of the Bill cannot be realised if there is no progress on social care reform. Further information about Age UK’s Health and Care Second Reading Briefing can be found here - https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/reports-and-publications/reports-and-briefings/health--wellbeing/health-and-care-bill/parliamentary-briefing---health-and-care-bill-second-reading.pdf Roshni Mistry, Senior Public Affairs Officer - roshni.mistry@ageuk.org.uk Settled status and older EEA citizens – updated adviser briefing following the end of June deadline for applicationsThis adviser briefing here sets out key information about the settled status schemes and the effect on older people from the European Economic Area (EEA) who live in the United Kingdom. It explains what settled status is (as well as pre-settled status), how this affects access to services and benefits, and how to make late applications for settled status. Citizens from the EEA had until the end of June to apply for settled status. Now that the UK has left the EU, citizens from EEA countries may find their eligibility for services and benefits has changed if they have not been granted settled status. Update on E-LearningThe training platform that runs the Age UK E-learning site (where you access training such as “The First Five Minutes”) has been upgraded. The upgrade will give us more options and functionality as we develop our online training. We are working with a small number of partners to test some of these new functionalities over the next couple of months, and we will be able to tell you more about them in due course. Please be reassured that your log-in details and access to the E-learning platform have not changed, and you can still access all the courses we had previously, and any records of previous learning will be intact. The only thing that is different is that the screen will look different in layout when you log in. Chloe Longmore, National Manager, I&A Review Project - chloe.longmore@ageuk.org.uk Benefits, Housing and Health & Care BriefingsThis month’s Benefits briefing, produced by Liam Bradford, Technical Advice Support Officer – Money and Benefits, includes information about: special rules for terminal illness to be replaced; extension of eligibility for bereavement benefits to include unmarried cohabiting parents and extra statutory benefit payments for existing claimants who have not applied for the EU Settlement Scheme. This month’s Housing briefing, produced by Lottie Beauchamp, Technical Advice Support Officer – Housing, includes: information about changes to notice period rules for rent arrears cases; regulations bringing in the homelessness sections of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 into force and better targeted support for the Warm Home Discount from 2022 This month’s Health and Care briefing, produced by David Broome, Technical Advice Support Officer – Social Care, and Rachel Freeman Technical Advice Support Officer – Health & End of Life, includes information about the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launching a social care inquiry, and directors of adult social services report into care and support delays. Also, some information on: consultations around aligning free prescriptions; hospital discharge funding; remote access to health and care services; and the introduction of community health services waiting time targets. Factsheet updateThe following factsheets have had an annual review for August 2021: FS14 Dealing with an estate FS38 Property and paying for residential care FS61 Help with health costs FS75 Dealing with debt FS79 Equality, discrimination and the Public Sector Equality Duty The above factsheets are now available to download from the Age UK website. The Large Print versions of all factsheets are also available to download from the Age UK website here https://www.ageuk.org.uk/services/information-advice/guides-and-factsheets/age-uk-large-print-factsheets/ Interesting Email of the monthCan my client have a stairlift fitted? Enquiry – “The client rents the top floor of a Grade 2 listed building from a private company, which owns the building on a leasehold basis. She is seeking permission for a stairlift to be installed on the building’s shared staircase – her mobility is very poor due to renal failure and terminal cancer, and she needs to leave the property regularly for dialysis appointments. The current situation feels very dangerous to me. The client is proposing to cover the cost of a rental stairlift herself. She has sought consent from English Heritage, who say they have no objections. However, the landlord has refused consent without giving written reasons. The client wants to know whether there are any legal grounds to appeal this decision – I have explained she may have rights under the Equality Act, but it may take time to enforce these and hence she should consider her wider housing options. I have advised the tenancy is likely to be assured shorthold and therefore carries a threat of ‘no fault’ eviction.” Response - The Equality Act 2010 You are right to say the Equality Act 2010 requires reasonable adjustments to be made to premises in certain circumstances. Unfortunately, these provisions are unlikely to be helpful here. I’ll explain why. Section 2(2) of Schedule 4 to the Equality Act requires ‘controllers of let premises’ (landlords or management companies) to take action where a ‘provision, criterion or practice’ of theirs is putting a disabled person at a ‘substantial disadvantage’ compared with people who are not disabled, or where the disabled person would be put at such a disadvantage were it not for the provision of an ‘auxiliary aid’. The landlord or manager must take ‘such steps as it is reasonable to have to take to avoid the disadvantage’. Examples of such ‘reasonable adjustments’ are given in the legislation:
However, landlords and managers are not themselves required to make any large-scale changes to a property’s physical features. Furthermore, the above only applies in relation to ‘let premises’, i.e. the parts of a building that are rented out to tenants, and not to ‘common parts’ like shared staircases. The Equality Act does contain provisions – sections 5-7 of Schedule 4 – requiring landlords to take reasonable steps where a physical feature of common parts is causing substantial disadvantage to a disabled tenant, however these sections have never been brought into force. The government committed to bringing them into force back in 2018, but as far as I’m aware there’s been no substantive update since then. Note some of the above information is contained in section 2.1.1 of FS67 Home improvements and repairs, and FS79 Equality, discrimination and the Public Sector Equality Duty has more detailed information about reasonable adjustments. Next steps The Equality Advisory and Support Service may know more about when the common parts duty is likely to come into force, assuming this is still on the government’s agenda. However, I would be surprised if anything changes this year. Having said this, your client could potentially use the government’s commitment to reform as leverage with her landlord, arguing they will soon be under a duty to make reasonable adjustments in relation to the common parts, so should exercise discretion in relation to her request in the here and now. In my view, it would be prudent to emphasise the stairlift will be rented rather than permanently installed, and to set out clear plans for what will happen to it once no longer required – the landlord may be more amenable to his request if satisfied they will not be burdened with the financial and administrative cost of removing the installation at a later date. Finally, I would advise asking the Equality Advisory and Support Service whether any of the wider anti-discrimination provisions contained in the Equality Act could assist your client. I note there is case law in terms of challenging landlords who refuse consent to adaptations in communal areas – see Williams v Richmond Court (Swansea) Ltd, set out in this parliamentary research briefing. This case was brought under earlier anti-discrimination legislation, and was ultimately unsuccessful, but nevertheless it does suggest that the prohibitions on direct and indirect discrimination contained in the Equality Act can be relied upon to challenge landlords in the absence of a common parts duty. Essentially, this would mean arguing the client is being treated less favourably than someone without her disability would be treated in the same circumstances, or that some general policy of the landlord’s (for example a blanket ban on consent for alterations) puts disabled tenants at a particular disadvantage. Much would seem to turn, therefore, on the landlord’s reasons for refusing the adaptations, so it would be a good idea to seek a written response from them. Also, although you were right to highlight the risk of no-fault eviction attached to assured shorthold tenancies, section 35 of the Equality Act prohibits the discriminatory ‘management’ of premises, including discriminatory eviction. Disability discrimination includes unfavourable treatment because of something arising in consequence of a disability, so eviction may be discriminatory if the landlord is seeking possession in response to a disabled tenant’s request for adaptations (the need for adaptations having arose in consequence of the disability). It is possible for an equalities ‘defence’ to be raised even against no-fault eviction, so although it’s important for the client to be aware of her tenancy security, she should also be aware she may have grounds to challenge an attempt by the landlord to regain possession on the basis of the adaptations dispute. However, given the circumstances, the stress of even a threatened eviction may be something she wishes to avoid at all costs. Control what you get from Age UK communicationsSign up: You can subscribe to newsletters for local Age UKs using our online sign-up. Control what you receive: You can update your existing subscription and details online. Unsubscribe: To unsubscribe, please email signpost@ageuk.org.uk. If you click the unsubscribe link in the footer you'll unsubscribe from all Age UK newsletters. |