Holding Back the Years
Episode 5 Holding Back the Years
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Series exploring concerns about ageing. Fiona Phillips investigates the 'good, bad and ugly' sides of the social care system. Bill Turnbull asks if there is a point to cruises.
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-Everything has an impact on your life.
-Whatever your age...
0:00:02 0:00:05
From the type of house we live in... 'Oh, this looks nice.'
Yes, it's been completely renovated throughout.
To how much money we have to spend.
Your wage ends up being like a normal working wage, which is good.
What we put in our bodies...
I don't think I've ever been "fat" fat, but I have put weight on.
'To the secrets of our genetic make-up.'
You are going to live to be 140.
That'll do, I'll take everything I can get.
So, finding out about all those things and more could help you
mature brilliantly...
Or slow down the ageing process just a little.
We've tracked down the very best tips and advice for holding back the years.
And now, with the help of our team,
we're going to pass them on to you!
To show you how to have the time of your life...
Whenever that may be.
Hello, and welcome to the show that says life begins...
Whenever you want it to. Here's what's coming up...
Today, we have our own investigation into the good,
the bad and the ugly sides of
Britain's social care system, and meet the
people seeking to challenge it.
So, Eileen, what made you become a whistle-blower in the first place?
I was working in my first care home, it was my first care job,
and I started to see widespread abuse of people.
Doctor Chatterjee puts some people to the test to find out the
difference between forgetfulness and memory loss.
Lemon, key, and ball.
Lemon, key, ball.
And does your age matter when it comes to holidays?
I've been finding out more on the road and on the waves.
Are there any particular issues that the more mature traveller needs to
-think about?
-I think the most important thing they have to
consider when they're travelling is insurance.
We have sold flights to people to Australia, and their insurance has
been more expensive than their flights.
It's a controversial issue -
who is going to take care of us when we get older, and who's going to pay
-for it?
-That's a question that's been coming up time and time again.
It's long been acknowledged that there's something of a postcode
lottery when it comes to the social care system in the UK,
but what about within the same postcode?
Well, Fiona's been to Kent to investigate a story that is
particularly personal for her.
My interest in social care started when I experienced it at first hand.
My mum and my dad both had early-onset dementia in middle
age, and both, I feel, were very badly let down by the system.
It really has affected me ever since, and I don't think it'll ever
Which is why, when I knew I was taking part in Holding Back The Years,
it's a subject I wanted - I needed -
to cover again, to see how far we've come in the years in between.
Have things got better or have they got worse?
Some residents were given overdoses or the wrong medication altogether.
And a man, whose catheter became twisted, cried out in agony,
saying he wanted to die.
If the news headlines are to be believed,
then the answer to my question is quite clear.
Betty, who has dementia and heart problems, was in a nursing home.
The family had concerns, so put in a secret camera.
It soon showed a care worker pushing the chair Betty was slumped in
sharply towards a desk.
Then, when Betty objects to her top being changed,
her head is slammed back into the chair.
No, I don't want to!
SHE SCREAMS
A recent report, meanwhile, suggests that,
in some parts of England alone,
more than half of care home places are rated inadequate or requiring
improvement. But of course statistics only tell you one side of
a story.
It's the words of those who have experienced the worst of the social
care system that matter the most.
In 2011, Maggie's mother, Rose, was suffering from dementia and
went into Woodgate care home in Maidstone.
It's since been demolished, but was run by the Abbeyfield Kent Society.
I'd gone in after work, and it was tea-time, and a carer was going
-around with the meds trolley.
-Right.
-And she said to me,
"Do you know when your mum's meds are going to be delivered?"
I said, "Pardon?"
And she said, "Your mum's meds. She says she hasn't had her meds for two weeks."
Her mum's medication had included morphine patches.
Clearly, without them, Rose had been in a lot of pain.
We'd been assured by the home that it wasn't necessary for us to
continue to deliver the meds to the home,
that they would be picked up and automatically delivered from the
surgery to the home, along with everybody else's meds.
So they said, "Please don't worry about it, it's absolutely fine,
"we've got this system in place."
Well, of course, it transpired that that system didn't work.
Maggie was forced to get an emergency prescription from her own
family doctor that night, and she raced into town to a chemist.
And they were finishing up the prescription and I went outside and
called social services.
I photocopied all Mum's medical records, since she'd been in there,
that said, "No meds, no meds."
And I just couldn't believe it.
Maggie complained to the Woodgate home and to Kent County Council.
There was a hearing that was set up by social services, because
the police decided not to prosecute.
What impact did it have on you?
It gave us some form of closure, but I think
the one thing that was truly
upsetting is that the management structure of
the home really didn't give a
thought to us and the effect it had had on us as a family.
Maggie is now dealing with her father's care needs.
I have time to drop you off and pick you back up later, if you want.
The experience her mother had has left a lasting impact on the entire family.
The decisions that Dad and I and my sister had to make about
putting her there in the first place, which anybody that's been in
that situation will understand how difficult
that alone is, because there's that guilt that you live with, that I
-physically took her there.
-Rose was moved to a different home,
where she received palliative care following a cancer diagnosis.
She died in 2014.
What's clear from Maggie's story is that the crisis in Britain's care
homes isn't just on the treatment side.
It's also what happens when genuine concerns of neglect or abuse are
raised. Are relatives or carers with complaints listened to?
One woman who thinks not is Eileen Chubb.
After witnessing abuse while working in a care home,
she became a whistle-blower.
Eileen's natural response to seeing what she considered to be abuse was
to tell her managers immediately,
but she didn't get the reactions she expected.
And when I realised the management weren't going to act, cos I'd
gone and reported everything, I took the step of going to social
services, and I said to the other care workers, I'd understand if they
didn't want to speak out, because we were risking our jobs.
And they all, without hesitation, said they'd give evidence.
Even though the complaints against the care home were upheld after a
report by Bromley social services,
Eileen and her colleagues lost their jobs.
They arrested the abusers, but everything we did wasn't enough,
because the company put the abusers in other homes, even though we had
-no jobs.
-This prompted Eileen to start a campaign group called
Compassion In Care.
To be honest, you know,
it's vital that there are charities that challenge these organisations.
-Well, you're not doing it for your own good, are you?
-No, we're not, and at the end of the day,
we're seeing people suffer who could have been saved.
I'll be very honest with you,
what I'm discovering today suggests that not a lot has moved on in the
years since my own mum and dad were in care,
but I don't want you to think that it's universally grim.
There are glimmers of hope.
Hale Place care home, near Maidstone in Kent, caters for a challenging
group of clients with advanced dementia.
It's been rated by the Care Quality Commission as an outstanding care
home since 2015.
So, let's see what outstanding looks like.
That's it, now squeeze those hands tight, that's it.
Have it nice and tight. There you go.
Hello. Here's your mate.
-Oh!
-Are you ready for him?
-How lovely.
-DOG WHINES
-Yes!
-Here he comes.
This home is all about light and space.
It doesn't feel institutional, it feels personal,
but it's the residents' faces that tell the real story of why this
place is ranked outstanding.
For you. Grace.
Yes. You're beautiful, aren't you?
And although many of them can't talk for themselves,
their loved ones are happy to be here, which says a lot.
You look at so many different places, and they are big
institutions, and there are people just sitting about. Here,
there are always people with them.
It was a decision, a very, very hard decision to make,
but I just knew that the small-scale, sort of, more personal
approach was the right approach for my mum.
The people here just care so much.
They have a small staff and we get to know them,
everybody gets to know them. It's like an extended family, and they
care so much and they treat them with respect.
Unfortunately, however,
Hale Place is in the minority when it comes to care homes.
Currently there are only 2% in England ranked outstanding.
So, what are the secrets?
I'm meeting with owner-manager Kevin Hewlett.
We have our organised in-house activities from outside people,
our therapeutic sessions,
and the only thing we're looking at there is that the residents are
benefiting from that. But going on from that,
as a good example, a few days ago,
four of our residents went to a concert, and one of them actually
saying, "This is the best thing I've ever done."
And it's those sorts of things that'll touch their lives,
that'll enhance their lives and literally make them happy.
-The thing that we look for.
-Oh, no, no, no.
Not going to hurt you, are they?
Because we wouldn't let them do that, no.
Today I've seen that, just within a few short miles of one another,
there's a vast disparity in standards of social care
in this country. Like the Wild West, there's the good, the bad and the
very, very ugly,
which means, to get some answers,
I'm going to meet the sheriff of this system.
But who is that?
Well, her name is Andrea Sutcliffe,
and she is Head of Adult Social Care at the Care Quality Commission,
and I'm about to have a showdown with her.
Find out later how I get on, when I put the questions from a care home
manager, a whistle-blower,
and a family directly to the person who should have the answers.
Now, how do you tell the difference between natural memory loss and the
sort that might signal a more serious cause?
It's something that a lot of us worry about.
Well, here's our doctor on your doorstep, GP Rangan Chatterjee,
with some advice you won't want to forget.
MUSIC: Memory by Elaine Paige
Memory - it's a complicated old thing.
You might be able to remember things that happened years ago,
but you can't recall what you had for dinner last night.
You forget why you came into a room,
and struggle with a simple password or PIN number.
But how do we know what's normal and what's a cause for worry when it
comes to memory?
Well, today I've come along to a place where they're dedicated to
answering just that. It's called a memory clinic.
First up, psychiatrist Doctor Sajid Ali gives me the lowdown on the
different types of memory - and there's a lot to remember!
What are the different kinds of memory?
I try to categorise in four different ways.
First of all, I talk about recent memory, so, for example,
what we're talking about now, you'll remember what I've just said.
Then we have long-term memory, for example,
what you ate for breakfast yesterday or what you did last year for
Christmas. And then we have semantic memory, so that's meanings of
things, for example, if I asked you, what's the shape of a tiger,
what colour's an apple? And then finally, procedural.
So, remembering procedures.
For example, how to switch on a television, how to ride a bicycle.
Is it inevitable that our memory will worsen as we age?
I use the analogy of general musculoskeletal fitness.
So, for example, if you were doing a 100 meter dash, you'd expect,
as you get older, for your times to slow.
Now, what research has shown is our speed of recall slows as we get
older, so if I ask you to recall something,
an 80-year-old compared to, if you're 30 years old,
you will still recall the information, but the speed of
-processing will slow.
-I guess one of the big questions for people is,
if your memory's not working as well as it used to be,
does that mean you're on your way to developing dementia?
Yeah, that's a good question, and the answer is absolutely not.
Having a bad memory or being forgetful alone may not actually
affect your day-to-day functioning at all.
You might just need to use some memory aids.
For dementia, it's a separate pathological condition where your
disorders of thinking get to a point where it's actually affecting your
-day-to-day life.
-So if you find yourself becoming more forgetful as
you get older, don't panic.
It could just be a sign of natural ageing.
That's not to say you can't do anything about it, however.
Here at the clinic, they can use simple tests to give your memory a
checkup, and we're going to see how it works.
We've invited along four people...
..to have their memories put through the mill.
Hello. 'Not only have they a wide range of ages,
'but also experiences.'
Nice to meet you all. How you doing?
Shall we start here? How's your memory?
Well, I'm 66, so therefore I was thinking that, you know,
it's slightly worse. Particularly names of people, for example.
How about yourself? Any concerns over your memory?
I can't remember things that happened years ago, so...
-You cannot?
-No, not really.
-I'll have that feeling of not
knowing why I've gone in that room, but then I can
-bring it back, basically, by going out and coming back in.
-Yeah, OK.
I have to write things down and make sure I checked.
-And you didn't used to have to do that?
-I didn't used to have to do that.
-Do you think your children have noticed your memory getting a bit worse?
-Yes, definitely.
-What have they said to you?
-They're not really bothered,
-they just tell me I'm getting older!
-LAUGHTER
So, time to see how I were volunteers fair with Doctor Ali's test.
A full test would look at a wider health assessment,
but today we're focusing on memory recall.
I'm going to give you three words, and what I'd like you to do is
-repeat those back to me.
-And it's hard not to play along.
Lemon, key and ball.
73 Orchard Close, Kingsbridge.
73 Kingsbridge?
John Deacon, 75 Beresford Road.
John Beresford, 75 Deacon Close.
On the number 100, keep taking seven away.
Can you name the woman who was Prime Minister here, back in the 1980s?
-Margaret Thatcher.
-The USA President was assassinated in the 1960s.
It's Kennedy, John F.
Harry Barnes, 73 Orchard close.
-And just one more time.
-Harry Hall...
Birch. 73 King's Lynn.
While they continue to have their memories poked,
I'm off to meet Doctor Sandrine Thuret from Kings College, London.
She's part of an international research project into memory and
ageing, and they've discovered some very interesting new research.
So, Sandrine, how much do we really know about memory?
So, we have known for a long time that the hippocampus,
which is a structure in the centre of the brain,
is important for certain types of
memory formation, like episodic memory.
But more recently, the more exciting discovery that has been made is, in
the hippocampus, we can make new neurons as an adult.
As an adult? For many years, we've thought that our nerve cells,
once they fully develop, that's it.
So how does the growth of these new nerve cells help us?
They are important for patent separation,
which is the ability of distinguishing similar memories.
Such as, every day you come home,
you bring your key and then maybe you will put them back in your bag.
And then the next day, maybe you put them on your desk,
so we think that these new neurons are important for patent separation,
basically recognising where you have put your same key in the same room,
but in a slightly different place every day.
So what does this mean for you and me?
Well, if we have the ability to generate new memory neurons,
as the doctor suggests,
then we also might be able to either encourage their growth or slow down
the decline with certain lifestyle changes.
But what are they? Time to separate memory fact from memory myth.
There's lots of stories in the media about various things that might have
a positive impact on our memory.
-Diet.
-Yes, high sugar diet, high saturated fat diet are probably bad.
-Exercise?
-Exercise is good.
-Being chronically sleep deprived?
-Will be bad.
-Chronically stressed?
-Bad.
-Omega-3 supplements?
Probably eating the actual fish would be better.
Supplements are not bad, but read the label, because we want fish
derived omega-3 fatty acid and not plant-derived omega-3 fatty acid,
which wouldn't reach, basically, the brain.
What about brain training, like crosswords?
So, if you train the brain at doing a task, it will be extremely good at
doing that task, but maybe some more spatial memory or patent separation
training would help.
We can do things that might reduce the rate of decline.
-Is that fair to say?
-Yeah, absolutely.
And it looks as though, once we hit 40, that's probably the age to start
-really paying attention to this.
-Absolutely. Or even before!
So, some food for thought there,
but now it's time to get back to Doctor Ali's assessment.
The results were quite interesting.
Nicki, it was you I spoke to first, and I felt you did very well on the
memory tests. Attention,
you did struggle a little bit with the mathematics-related question.
My attention gets wandered a bit.
So, James, your recall was good with the name and address aspect when I
asked you first, but as a little extra test, I asked you the same
question again twice, then you actually got the question wrong.
So, I mean, there's something to mention there about repetition as
well, in terms of a strategy when you have to remember particular
facts, and that would be one technique you might use.
As regards long-term and semantic memory,
the volunteers performed very well,
but it was short-term recall that was the main issue.
Is that the thing that goes first in age-related memory decline,
-short-term memory?
-Very commonly, it could be one of the earliest signs.
That, along with word-finding difficulties. So, when you're speaking to someone,
you sometimes have difficulty finding the exact right word.
Those could be some of the early signs, but not absolutely necessary
that we see them first. It depends on the case.
Well, it seems our Fab Four have discovered things about their memory
they didn't know. So what do they do now?
Well, there are ways to help their
memories remember the important things.
Doctor Ali, people who find their memory isn't quite as good as it
used to be, are there some strategies that they can adopt to help them?
You can use memory aids, you can use prompts, you can get your
medication, ask your GPs to provide it in a dosette box or a
blister pack.
Phone apps that can help, so that you get sent reminders for when it's
time to take your medication every single day.
These are basic strategies just for memory alone,
but if you're having trouble with other aspects,
for example finding your way, again that's what we use satnavs for now,
or you could get a family member, for example,
to accompany you to appointments if you find that helps you.
So, lots of different strategies you could use.
Memory clinics like this one are a reminder that we've come a long way
when it comes to how we view the mind.
But so much of it still remains a mystery.
So here's some top tips to remember...
One - not all memory loss means you have dementia.
Two - there are lifestyle changes that will help slow the natural
decline of our memory, and simple mind-training techniques that will
help improve it.
Three - if memory loss begins to interfere with how you're functioning
in everyday life, then go and see
your GP, who might refer you to a memory clinic.
But let's leave the final words to our memory masterclass.
So, what did you all think? How was that?
I think I got some reassurance out of it, to say it's OK
if I can't remember things, not to worry too much.
I must admit, I'd always thought a lot of it was hereditary, you know,
that it really is the luck of the draw,
that you've got more control than you think in terms of, you can still
-improve it.
-So you are walking away from this empowered?
-Yes.
Remember, although our memory does worsen as we get older,
there's plenty that you can do to slow down the process.
One way of keeping your mind sharp, of course, is with our daily puzzle.
All you've got to do is watch the following clips and work out when
they all took place.
And the question is simple, as always -
what was the year that was?
FUNKY MUSIC PLAYS
Here's how the game works.
We're going to show you a few key events that all happened in the
space of a year, but which year?
And here's why you should play along.
Psychologists have said that nostalgia can promote a sense of
wellbeing and vitality in us all.
So this could help you hold back the years.
MUSIC: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!
To reaffirm the unanimous decision of March the 8th,
to declare official, in accordance with rule 41,
the strike action...
# Wake me up before you go-go
# Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo
# I don't want to miss it when you hit that high
# Cos I'm not planning on going solo
# Take me dancing tonight. #
MUSIC: 99 Red Balloons by Nena
# Back at base, sparks in the software
# Flash the message, something's out there
# Floating in the summer sky
# 99 red balloons go by... #
Not everything Sir Geoffrey had said pleased Mr Gorbachev or vice versa.
The basic disagreements are still there.
But both sides know now that they've established a relationship they can
-build on.
-I like Mr Gorbachev.
We can do business together.
# 99 red balloons
# Floating in the summer sky... #
And we'll give you the answer at the end of the show.
Over-50-year-olds now account for 58% of the tourism and holiday
market, which proves that just because you've reached a certain
age, it doesn't mean you're ready to
put on your slippers and stay at home.
-I've never owned a pair of slippers.
-Have you not?
-No, I really...
I don't like them! So what's the best option for you when it comes to
holidaying back the years?
Bill - you didn't tell me about this - went on an excursion to find out.
Welcome to the Holiday World Show 2018, here in Belfast...
..where people are busy checking out vacations across the world,
staycations here at home, and a lot,
and I mean a lot, of cruises.
I just hope the fact it's being held in the heart of the Titanic
Exhibition Centre isn't a bad omen.
With people over 50 now the age group spending the most on travel,
I want to find out about the opportunities and pitfalls that,
well, we all need to look out for if were booking a break.
And people here certainly seem to know where they're going.
We've got Spain booked for Easter.
We have a touring caravan and we're planning to visit Dorset.
We're going on a cruise to the Baltic.
-Well, we like Spain, don't we?
-Spain, yeah.
Motorhome, on the Continent.
MUSIC: Summer Holiday by Cliff Richard
They're also pretty confident about why they're going.
Seeing different culture, seeing different cities.
Eat what local people eat, and drink what they drink, and mix with them.
So the world really is their oyster.
Life's too short. Keep getting your holidays.
With being retired, we can go any time, anyplace, anywhere.
Doreen McKenzie from the Association of British Travel Agents knows what
older travellers are after, and I'm meeting up with her on a boat that
was once used to ferry passengers out to the Titanic.
Doreen, the holiday market for seniors has exploded over the past
few years. Why do you think that is?
Well, I think it's probably we're all living longer and people are not
saving their money in banks any more, they're spending it.
So they just decide to travel.
By and large, what sort of trips are people in the more mature market
-looking for?
-Oh, they're getting more adventurous!
The over-50s market, shall we call it, is actually now looking at soft adventure.
What is soft adventure?
Soft adventure would be more cultural type of holidays -
say a walk in the Camino in Spain, or going to learn how to cook in
Portugal, or wine-tasting in France.
These extra measures differ from company to company,
but most of them are implemented around the age of 70 and begin to
rise after that. It's important to let the insurance companies know of
any pre-existing medical conditions,
as well, otherwise you won't be covered.
Things like this mean the older traveller has to be a savvy traveller.
The over-50s are now the silver surfers on the web,
there's no doubt about that. When they come into us to make a booking,
they actually have a lot of their knowledge in front of them.
They know why they're travelling.
They're coming in because they're wanting to go to a country to see
the culture or it's on their bucket list, they want to visit.
And one of the most popular ways to do the bucket list is by sea.
We like cruising. We try to do one if not two per year.
-We've done a cruise now, haven't we?
-We've done a cruise. Yeah.
-He would like to go back.
-During the last ten years,
the greatest growth that we've seen has been in cruising.
Ten years ago, it was 10% of our business,
and it's now up to about 40%.
In fact, 14% of all UK holiday-makers are planning to go on
a cruise in the next 12 months.
So what's so good about a trip on the ocean waves?
Well, 91-year-old John Mason first got the taste for cruising in 1973
with his wife Pat.
We went virtually everywhere.
Around Europe, usually in the
Mediterranean, up to as far as Egypt once.
To San Francisco, then all down the west coast of South America.
I went on a cruise once.
-I can't say it was my favourite travel experience.
I'm wondering if you can help persuade me of the benefits.
What's so great about going on a cruise?
I can't explain, really,
what pleasure it gives me to sit on a boat, just looking at the sea
and thinking, "Oh, it's time for a drink," or "It's time for a meal."
-It's about relaxing...
-Oh, relaxing...
-..and the world comes to
-your doorstep, doesn't it?
-Everything, yeah.
Sadly, John's wife, Pat, passed away in 2006,
but last year he went on a cruise with this lady.
It all began one lunchtime when he paid a visit to his local pub.
I walked in there and there wasn't a spare seat in the place!
And I was really looking for food, you know?
So I turned round to go out, and I turned round and there was,
as I know now, Vera, sitting at a table for two.
So I said, "Would you mind if I sat and had lunch with you?"
"No, no, no," she said, "come and sit down."
-And in that half an hour, I talked her into coming on a cruise with me!
-A woman you'd never met before?
-Never met before. No, no.
-And then...
-She was very talkative, very, very nice, yeah.
And she agreed on the spot?
"I can't believe I'm doing this," she said. She kept saying this!
I said, "Well, you are, because I'm going to pay for it,"
so I booked it and that was it.
-You're a charmer, aren't you, John?
-Hmm...
John's obviously had a great time on the ocean wave over the years, and
he makes a good case for cruises, doesn't he?
So maybe, just maybe, I should give them another go.
But there is one kind of holiday I really don't think I could face again.
I think you see more of the country and the people in the towns and
-villages.
-Just finding a nice, quiet
site somewhere to relax and hopefully enjoy some nice weather.
It's certainly expanding, certainly over the last two or three years,
more and more people are caravanning.
I mentioned earlier that I'm not the
world's greatest fan of cruise ships,
and actually the same goes for caravans and even motorhomes.
Some of my worst childhood moments were spent in what was a mobile tin
with a chemical loo that had to be emptied every day.
And I haven't forgotten!
And that's exactly why the producers of Holding Back The Years have sent
me here - The Fairacres Camping And Caravan Park on the shores of Lough
Neagh in County Armagh, where I'm meeting Morna and Chris Wells.
-Knock, knock.
-Come in!
-Hello, hello.
-Hello, Bill.
-Welcome to our home on wheels!
We go out every weekend, nearly.
Last year, we were in Portugal and Spain.
-The year before that, Finland.
-Finland.
And then, before that, it was Poland.
This year we're going to Germany.
And you're king and queen of the road, I suppose.
-Yeah.
-I used to go on caravanning holidays when I was a kid.
We used to have the chemical loos and the cooking smell with plenty of
-gas.
-But that can be a sense of adventure.
-Is that what it was?
-Yeah!
You look at the memories that you have from that time.
-Yeah, I'm looking!
-Now, come on, there may be good memories, there must be some good times in there that you had.
-Um...
Well, certainly memories of being
cramped in a small space with my family are definitely flooding back.
-Only two people can sleep on here?
-No, no. No, we have...
-We have a bed above your head.
-Up here?
-How's it work? Does it come down easily?
-This just comes down.
-Yeah?
-That's it, Chris. Whoa, whoa!
-Oh, sorry, Morna.
You're going to crush Morna, you see?
-Morna...
-Hello.
-Just pop that back quickly, Chris.
If you've got four people in here...
-..there's nowhere to move.
-There is, of course there is!
-All right.
-Well, you have to take it in stages, you know!
I mean, you... LAUGHTER
Chris and Morna are incredibly proud of what is essentially a house in
-miniature.
-Welcome to our en-suite.
-OK.
-Right, this is it. And of course your full-length
-mirror, to see how you look in the morning.
-Oh, naturally. For when you put your ball gown on.
-And we have a shower inside here, to your right.
We have our toilet and then we have our wardrobe as well, for our
-clothes.
-It's very impressive, I have to say.
OK. Well, have we convinced you, Bill? What do you think?
Well, childhood memories apart, when the Turnbulls go on holiday,
there's up to eight of us, and I just don't think we're all going to
-squeeze in.
-But you can get the right type of...
-You can get a larger one.
-Yes. I can't afford it!
Well, as the saying goes, if you can't beat them...
So when you're up here, quite high up,
does it make you feel grand, king of the road?
Yes, it does. Here you're sitting above the hedges and you can see
everything all around.
Well, you can't say I didn't give it a go.
It's nearly time to take my leave,
but I have a little surprise for John, who I met earlier.
'Hello, John. I'm sorry I can't be with you today.'
I'm looking forward to seeing you when we next meet in April and go on
our next cruise to wherever.
'Not sure quite where we're going, but I'm gathering a few bits and
pieces together in case we go somewhere hot!
'Take care of yourself. Bye for now, and bye-bye, Bill.'
-Oh, well, that's nice.
-Vera doesn't know exactly where you're going.
-Not currently.
-I hope you do.
-Yes, yes. Italy and Croatia.
-Have a lovely trip.
-We will. We certainly will.
And do you know what? I hope they do. Bon voyage.
Time now to get back to my investigation of the good,
the bad and the ugly side of social care.
One of the country's head honchos had agreed to a one-on-one showdown
with me. I decided, however, to bring some backup.
So far in my journey through the British social care system for older
people, I've discovered its many different sides.
The undoubted good...
And it's those sorts of things that will touch their lives,
that will enhance their lives.
-..the bad...
-They arrested the abusers, but everything we did
wasn't enough because the company put the abusers in
other homes, even though we had no jobs.
..and the very, very ugly...
I photocopied all Mum's medical records,
since she'd been in there, that said, "No meds, no meds."
..all of which have left me with many questions to ask.
This has always puzzled me. I really want to know why the
experience of care is so very different depending on where you
live, how much money you've got,
who's dealing with the care, who owns the care home.
There are so many questions and I want to find the answers.
And I know exactly who to go to.
Andrea Sutcliffe is the chief inspector for adult social care in
England, and at the very top of the Care Quality Commission.
It's time, I feel, for a high noon showdown.
Now then, the Care Quality Commission, or CQC as it's
otherwise known, what exactly is it?
The Care Quality Commission is the quality regulator for health and
care services across England.
So what that means is that we are here to make sure that services
provide care which is safe,
effective, compassionate and high-quality,
and we encourage services to improve.
There are equivalent bodies who inspect and set standards for the
social care sector for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The CQC rate their care homes on five main categories...
..which they judge when making unannounced visit to care homes.
How can you do that in one visit?
So our visits will typically be at least a day, maybe more,
depending on the size of the service and how many people are there,
what the issues are that we find.
But it's not just the inspection.
It's actually talking to the people about their experience.
So, in view of the CQC's willingness to listen,
I've brought along a few messages.
This is Kevin Hewlett,
who runs an outstanding home in Kent, and this is his question.
It would be really good if the inspectors, when they come into care
homes, would give advice and guidance,
if they would share good practice
with care home managers and their staff.
They're the people at the front line that go round, they see good
practice, they see outstanding homes, they're rating them.
So, to share the good practice with all of us can only be a good thing.
So, what do you think of that? Kevin would like more interaction
-between you, more accessibility to you, actually.
-To be fair, Kevin's
running an outstanding care home,
so I'd much rather that people were looking at what he's doing and
finding out what he's doing and how he's improving.
Sharing what he does would be beneficial to so many people,
-wouldn't it?
-Indeed, and one of the things we do in the reports that we
write about outstanding services is to be really clear about what it is
that makes them outstanding, and I
know that lots of other care providers have looked at
our reports, have gone and visited those services to really find out
for themselves what makes those places tick.
So, while there doesn't appear to be a forum where care home
professionals and inspectors can share their findings and
experiences, the reports do specify what makes a home outstanding.
Which may be of help,
as recent data released by the CQC finds that more than half of care
homes in some parts of England are
rated as inadequate or requiring improvement.
And in many cases it's whistle-blowers in those very
institutions that come forward to complain.
And yet whistle-blowers are still demonised.
They're seen as troublemakers rather than someone who passionately cares,
otherwise you wouldn't be a social care worker in the first place.
So, one of the things that we're saying to people who're running
services is that your staff are your greatest asset.
You really need to care for them, nurture them, support them,
and respond well when they are
identifying to you that there are problems.
One such whistle-blower was Eileen Chubb.
She lost her job when she made a complaint.
I would ask if they understand how
'important it is to protect whistle-blowers' identities, and how
'committed they are to it, and do they understand'
what happens to people who speak out if their employer
finds out about it.
Do you think whistle-blowers need to be protected?
Do you listen to them when they have things to say?
We do listen to whistle-blowers, people who have shared their
experiences when they're working in services,
and they can share that information with us confidentially.
Clearly, if...
you know, sometimes, if somebody's been raising those concerns over a
period of time and then we pitch up and look at exactly the same thing,
it may not take, you know,
too much for the people to work out where we might have got our
information from,
but our inspectors are acutely aware of the importance of keeping the
names of people who share that information with us confidential.
Employees who witness abuse,
who feel they cannot talk to their management teams,
can raise their concerns with their regional inspectorate,
which includes the CQC for England.
But sometimes, for the families, listening is not enough.
Like Maggie, whose mother, Rose, was in a care home.
Why do you not speak to the relatives?
'Talk to us, let us help you. Not just for the bad things,'
but also the good. We could be working as a team together.
Similar sort of thing, in that
users, care users, would like to have more actual access to you.
We do talk to relatives and we want to talk to relatives because we know
that they give us great insight into what's happening.
But that's only if you go in and inspect, isn't it,
that they have that direct access to you, the relatives?
But relatives can also share their experience with us.
We have the ability, a facility on our website,
for people to do that, and we have a call centre where people can call us
-as well.
-So, the face-to-face
opportunities with the CQC for families really are few
and far between. But families can leave comments on the website or
talk to a real person at their call centre.
And whilst our interviewees may have found answers to their questions,
I've one burning issue which I've
wanted to know from the very start of this journey...
Why is there still so much discrepancy between outstanding care
and really ugly, bad care?
Awful lot of this comes down to people using the resources,
the money that they've got, sensibly.
Are they recruiting the right staff?
Are they training those staff so that they know what they should be
doing? And most importantly,
are they focusing on the people who are using the service?
And it's when people lose sight of the people that they are supposed to
be looking after that it goes wrong.
And that's the thing that we have to guard against.
It always has to be about the people who are using the service.
So the signs today are encouraging.
They're certainly going into homes and they say they're not warning
homes before going in there. So it's encouraging and we'd all better
start asking questions about care, because we all want to live long,
happy lives, and to do that,
ageing is compulsory!
So we all need to start caring about old age care, because we're all
going to be there one day.
And quickly, the answer to our "What was the year that was?" archive quiz for today. Fiona?
Quickly, 1984 - the year that Torvill and Dean struck Gold in the
Winter Olympics.
Indeed. We're putting things on ice for the weekend,
-but we'll see you again next week. Bye-bye.
-Bye-bye.
MUSIC: Bolero by Maurice Ravel
Everything has an impact on how well we live, whatever our age - from the type of house we live in to how much money we've got to spend, what we put in our bodies and the secrets of our genetic make-up. So finding out about all those things - and more - could help you mature brilliantly - or slow down the ageing process, just a little. We've tracked down the very best tips and advice for holding back the years, and now, with the help of our team, we're going to pass them on to you, to show you how to have the time of your life - whenever that may be.
Hosted by Bill Turnbull, Fiona Phillips and Dr Rangan Chatterjee, Holding Back the Years is a lifestyle magazine looking at how to stay well, live longer and be healthy - whatever age you are.
In this episode, Fiona Phillips investigates the 'good, bad and ugly' sides of the social care system. Bill Turnbull asks whether there is a point to cruises.