Framework goals still out of reach

Older people’s services still suffer from age discrimination and poor partnership working five years after the publication of the national service framework.

None of the 10 areas studied for a report published this week had met all the milestones in the 2001 framework, which set goals to remove discrimination, make services personcentred
and promote independence.

The strongest criticism in the joint study by the Commission for Social Care Inspection, Healthcare Commission and Audit Commission is reserved for mental health services, where progress had not been made in tackling discrimination, unlike in other areas.

Just four areas had formed integrated mental health teams, despite an NSF milestone of April 2004 to agree plans to set them up.

The regulators inspected services in Brent, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Greenwich, Leicester, Liverpool, Medway, Portsmouth, Redcar and Cleveland, and Wiltshire.

Next month, older people’s tsar Ian Philp will produce a report on how the NSF should be implemented over the next five years.

● Living Well in Later Life from www.healthcarecommission.org.uk