HMR Circle launches Give and Take Care

In attendance were several councillors, including the Mayor and Mayoress, Leader of the Council-Richard Farnell, representatives of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), the borough’s largest social housing provider and a host of HMR Circle Members to listen to the presentations.

Mark Wynn, Director of Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale Circle opened proceedings with a short history of HMR Circle and how they got off the ground thanks to the support of RBH and have since gone onto receive international recognition for their work on reducing social isolation amongst Older People, and how they have also received acclaim for both Social and Business Innovation.

Professor Heinz Wolff then took to the floor to give his vision of how we should all try and help support each other.

Prof. Wolff spoke about with an increasingly ageing population more needs to be done to make provision for people in later life. He gave 4 key themes for the future

1, To materially improve the Care and Support available to elderly people wanting to be cared for in their own homes. 

2, To enable individuals to make future provision for themselves and their immediate family, in order to receive Care & Support, when they need it, in a manner which relieves public expenditure.

3, To allow individuals to recognise that the large increase in the number of older people who require Care, because of increased longevity, makes it impossible, under present and likely future economic conditions, for the State to provide an adequate service. Society at large has to share the burden, as a duty to the “wellness” of their nation.

4, To improve the quality of the Community, by this expenditure of Social Capital.

Dr. Gabriella Spinelli from Give & Take Care CIC and Brunel University then gave a more in-depth overview of how Give and Take Care works.

Dr. Spinelli explained that “Give and Take Care (G&TC) is a time-banking scheme with the ambition to become embedded in society long-term. G&TC is made up of CareGivers and CareReceivers; both of which are called Partners.

G&TC delivers volunteer befriending support through organisations like HMR Circle, encouraging regular one-to-one support visits which can become long-term, meaningful friendships. We believe this will improve the quality of care for many older adults by increasing connections with others and providing additional support with day-to-day activities.

The scheme is also available to people in existing family care arrangements, enabling family carers to bank some caring time for their own futures.

Central to the scheme is the Care Savings Account, a personal account where CareGivers record the hours of care they give to elderly people. In the future, when CareGivers reach age 60, they can become CareReceivers and ‘spend’ their credits to gain the support they need. In this way, G&TC gives something back to those who volunteer for the elderly in their local communities.

The G&TC Care Savings Account helps CareGivers to plan for their own future support needs.”

The event was brought to a close by the Mayor, Councillor Ian Duckworth who thanked everyone for attending and urged everyone to get behind the scheme and help make the Rochdale Borough a great place to grow old.

For more information about Give and Take Care click on the video link below or visit the HMR Circle Website http://hmrcircle.org.uk/