OLDER PEOPLE'S CONSULTATIVE FORUM
MONDAY 29 SEPTEMBER 2008
MEETING ROOM 4E-01 ST ANDREWS HOUSE
Attendees:
Shona Robison MSP Minister for Public Health (Chair)
David Manion Age Concern Scotland
Barbara Barnes Alzheimer's Scotland
Dr Gurudeo Saluja Black and Minority Ethnic Elders Group
Cllr Ronnie McColl CoSLA representative on older people issues
(West Dunbartonshire Council)
Sylvia Murray CoSLA
Susanne Cameron-Nielsen Help the Aged in Scotland
George Henderson National Pensioner's Convention Scotland
Lisa Wallace Scottish Government - Fuel Poverty Team
Diana Findlay Scottish Older People's Advisory Group
Jill Wilson Scottish Pensions Association
Elinor McKenzie Scottish Pensioners Forum
Irene Sweeney STUC
Agnes McGroarty West of Scotland's Senior Forum
Andrew Jackson Women's Royal Voluntary Service
Apologies :
Jean Elgar Dumfries and Galloway Local Authority
Secretariat :
John Storey Older People and Age Team
Mabel McDowall Older People and Age Team
Brian Nisbet Older People and Age Team (minutes)
Neil Rennick Head of Older Peoples Unit
1. WELCOME, INTRODUCTIONS AND APOLOGIES
Shona Robison (Minister for Public Health) opened the meeting and thanked everyone for attending. The Minister welcomed Agnes McGroarty to the Forum and thanked Martin Brickley, who previously represented the West of Scotland Seniors Forum, for his input during his time on the Forum. The Minister noted the agenda for the meeting and that papers had been circulated to members.
2. UPDATE ON ISSUES SINCE 21 APRIL - PAPER 4:2008
The Minister noted that a number of items from the last meeting had since been dealt with in correspondence from the Older People and Age Team.
The Minister commented on the UK Government's announcement on 26 June of the outcome of the Discrimination Law Review. The current expectation is that legislation will be presented to the UK Parliament shortly before Christmas and that, as this will be a complex piece of legislation, it will not complete its Parliamentary passage until spring 2010. Even if the then Act is brought into effect later in 2010, there could well be 5 years for implementation of the age equality provision (as with equal pay legislation).
Gurudeo Saluja commented on the benefits uptake pilot that is currently running in one area of Aberdeenshire and Glasgow, and asked why this initiative was not Aberdeenshire wide. The Minister explained that the pilots, which run until March 2009, need to be on a small scale to start with to see how they work, and how they could be expanded into larger urban and rural areas.
- Action Point - Obtain information on the Deveron, Aberdeenshire benefits pilot for Gurudeo Saluja. [Note: information since provided.]
3. UPDATE ON FUEL POVERTY AND FUEL POVERTY FORUM
Lisa Wallace updated the Forum on the Scottish Government's policy on fuel poverty. She explained that there are two main programmes which the Scottish Government operate in relation to fuel poverty - the Warm Deal Programme and the Free Central Heating Programme. She went on to say that in 2005/06, 1 in 4 Scottish households were estimated to be fuel poor (23.5%, 543,000 households). Fuel poverty in Scotland is more than 3 times more prevalent than in England where 7% of households are fuel poor.
Lisa explained that when the new Scottish Government came to power they inherited the target of eradicating fuel poverty by 2016; as far as is reasonably practicable. They asked for a review of the fuel poverty programmes which indicated that the programmes inherited were not working. Key conclusions of the review are listed below:
- increasing fuel prices are creating more fuel poor;
- programmes are well intentioned but not tackling fuel poverty;
- the Central Heating Programme is now largely about replacement systems;
- in face of fuel prices (reserved issue), we need to ensure available resources are put to best use;
- consequently, need for reform of the programmes; and
- need to tackle rural fuel poverty, and consider if a national programme provides the most flexible approach.
The Scottish Government is doing what it can to improve the delivery of the fuel poverty programmes inherited from the previous administration. The review has highlighted clearly that the programmes are not appropriately focussed and are not doing enough to end fuel poverty in Scotland. In May the Scottish Government announced a raft of measures to get them back on track:
- prioritising the CHP waiting list with immediate effect to give priority to the fuel poor, and allow headroom for reform;
- re-establishing the Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum under an independent Chair to advise on options for future policy direction
- extension of the benefits health check to Warm Deal applicants;
- establishment of a Carbon Emission Reduction Target Strategy Group to help ensure Scotland gets its fair share; and.
- £1.5 million CERT funds to complement the fuel poverty programmes.
The Fuel Poverty Forum has met 7 times since it was re-established in May 2008 and is due to report to Ministers by the end of September 2008. Once the report had been submitted to Ministers for consideration, it would be published. [Note: it was published on 10 October, and Mabel McDowall e-mailed it to Members that day.]
Scottish Ministers are also keeping up the pressure on energy companies and the UK Government to do all that they can to protect those most vulnerable to high fuel prices;
- the Minister for Communities and Sport has met individually with energy supply companies, Ofgem and the Energy Retail Association and attended the Ofgem Fuel Poverty Summit on 23 April;
- the Cabinet Secretary for Health & wellbeing participated in the first meeting of the reformed UK wide Ministerial Fuel Poverty Group on 15 July; and,
- the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth wrote to the Secretary of State for Scotland on 6 August calling for action to help Scottish energy consumers this winter.
A number of points were made by Forum members about:
- sub-standard work being carried out by contractors on social housing.
- central heating systems being shut down due to non compliance with EU safety regulations
- energy companies taking 4 to 8 months to respond to customers over complaints.
- clear guidance needed for older people in relation to switching energy tariffs.
It was agreed that relevant issues would be passed to Stewart Maxwell, Minister for Communities and Sport, with portfolio responsibility for Fuel Poverty.
4 ALL OUR FUTURES - UPDATE ON IMPLEMENTATION - PAPER 5:2008
The Minister ran through the content of paper 5:2008 showing that progress is being made on a number of fronts. The Scottish Centre for Intergenerational Practice has been up and running since October 2007. One of its main priorities for 2008-09 is to develop a national training programme to meet identified needs and support local networks, and she expected some members would be hearing about that shortly.
The Minister had chaired the first meeting of the National Forum on Ageing Implementation Group on 16 September, and the papers for that meeting are already on the Scottish Government website: the minutes will be available soon.
Regional stakeholder events are in process of being organised, with the first one in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 14 November and the second in Inverness on 3 December. The Older People and Age Team will make sure Forum members are advised of the dates of other regional events as they become known.
Members were also advised that we are working on the first report on the main All Our Futures commitments. This will relate to the 5 Strategic Objectives, and we expect to present the first report to Parliament later in the year.
The Minister asked if members had seen the Anti Ageism Campaign 'See the person, not the age'. Feedback has been positive and the TV advertisement was voted the public's favourite of the week, in a marketing agency's weekly poll of 1000 members of the public. She asked members if any of them had been involved with the campaign and if they had any comments to make.
Diana Findlay said that her organisation had been involved in the local advertising campaign through Barkers and that communication had been poor. Dates and venues had been changed and this had led to what Diana felt was a poor turnout when the Scottish Government Infotruck had gone to Galashiels. Andrew Jackson also commented that his organisation had no communication from Barkers regarding these events, and would have liked to get involved. Overall it was felt that communication had been the main stumbling block for the local part of the campaign. The Minister said it was really useful to have these comments, which would be fed back to Barkers and form part of the overall evaluation of the campaign.
SINGLE OUTCOME AGREEMENTS
Irene Sweeney raised the issues of the Concordat and the new working arrangements now in place with local government. She highlighted a suggested "underspend" within the Older Peoples budget by North Ayrshire Council, whilst at the same time there had been cut backs to Older People's services within the area.
The Minister noted the concerns that were raised and stated that the problems of relative spending on older peoples issues compared with other priorities was long standing. Single Outcome Agreements (SOAs) aimed to encourage an increased focus on local priorities. She expected that demographic pressures and the interests of older people would be a priority across council areas and that this would be reflected in their consideration of their 2009/10 SOAs. The Minister felt that there was a opportunity for older peoples organisation to engage with local authorities and their community planning partners on specific older peoples issues and have these imbedded into future SOAs. Ms Robison asked Cllr McColl if it would be possible to have session on SOAs at the next meeting of the OPCF so that it was clear to members how they could influence the process. This was agreed and will be put on the agenda for the next meeting.
Andrew Jackson asked whether progress had been made on the Sutherland Review of Free Personal Care recommendation that there should be a specific reference in the 15 National Outcomes to securing the wellbeing of older people. Neil Rennick said the Government has accepted the recommendation, and that it will be looked at when the National Performance Framework is next reviewed. Work was also progressing to link the post-Sutherland work on Free Personal Care with Single Outcome Agreements.
5 OLDER PEOPLES CONGRESS/ASSEMBLY - PAPER 6:2008
The Minister advised that there had been a very positive response to the proposal to hold an Older People's Assembly or Congress. She was keen to proceed with a one-off event, and asked that organisations around the table get together and prepare a considered and worked up proposal for consideration by officials.
The Minister envisaged that 6 months planning and preparation will be required, and then another 6 months to get the assembly off the ground. She mentioned that it would be good to have the event around Older People's Day in 2009. Ms Robison asked if anyone would be prepared to take the lead, working with others, in taking forward arrangements for the event.
David Manion offered that Age Concern Scotland (ACS) would be happy to organise the event in consultation with other members of the OPCF. Elinor McKenzie and Diana Findlay both voiced their support for the event and were happy for Age Concern Scotland to organise, but stressed that older people should be the driving force. Other members supported the proposal and thanked Age Concern Scotland for offering to take the lead. It was agreed that a steering group would be established, with an invitation extend to all members of the OPCF and they would look at models for older people's assemblies.
6 ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Irene Sweeney said that she was unhappy that an agenda item she had put forward had not been put on the main agenda. The Minister responded that she had it flagged up under any other business, but that she was happy for agenda items notified to the secretariat to be on the agenda.
Updates to members on Fuel Poverty would be sent out as and when they happened. The Minister said that it was a two way process and that members should pass issues to John Storey if they become aware of any.
The OPCF Secretariat would be in contact with members for a date for the next meeting, which would be in the new year.
Older People and Age Team
October 2008