London elderly scheme's closure fuels row over care-gap crisis
Southwark Circle programme, hailed in past by David Cameron, had to shut down after it ran out of funds
The scheme hailed as an answer to the looming care gap for
older people and praised by David Cameron has collapsed after it ran out of money.
Southwark Circle, a membership and mutual support group for anyone over 50 living in Southwark, south
London, has closed along with other circles it had spawned in London and Suffolk. Two schemes survive elsewhere.
The programme helped isolated people find social and practical support from other people in the community. In 2009 Cameron likened the scheme's community roots to those of Wikipedia and said it was "delivering vastly improved care services for less money, designed by elderly people for elderly people using local social networks to bring real improvements to people's lives".
Its closure is a huge blow to hopes that
communities would be able to organise support schemes as the number of older people needing care begins to outnumber the number of family members to provide it. On Thursday
a thinktank warned that the gap would start to open in 2017.
The closure of the totemic Southwark project, which was seen as a radically new approach to delivering public services, will also raise doubts about the potential for social enterprise to step in to replace the shrinking traditional public sector.
Hilary Cottam, who led development of the concept, said: "These new models are very fragile if they are left on their own to survive. The big question is where the finance is going to come from to sustain alternative models."
Southwark Circle was created in 2009 after a two-year study that was backed by Whitehall. For an annual fee of £20, members had access to social events and a helpline through which they could get domestic jobs done for a small charge – typically £10 – by "neighbourhood helpers".
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/apr/24/london-elderly-scheme-closure-care-gap-crisis
