Ref. 28415-15GRACE ELLIOTT was afraid that the new girl might be spooked.

"Very bleak reading," said Grace, referring to a front page story in the Evening Advertiser. "Enough to give the young ones nightmares."

The story highlighted a nationwide problem of abuse against the vulnerable elderly. Some of the victims were in care homes. Others were assaulted or neglected on their own premises by relatives or neighbours entrusted with looking after them.

Grace is 87 and a resident of Fairhaven residential home in Bath Road, Swindon.

The "new girl" she was worried about is 81 a very impressionable age!

So concerned was Grace about the wrong message doing the rounds on Swindon's jungle drums that she chivvied the Fairhaven manager, Lynn Plumstead, into calling the Evening Advertiser.

Grace was determined to balance the books and show that the bad experiences that made the headlines were outweighed by the good.

"I've been here a year now and this is truly home from home," said Grace, who has the Evening Advertiser delivered every day.

"The kindness of the staff has to be witnessed to be believed. Nothing is too much trouble. And the food is more tasty than you'd have served up in most restaurants.

"I wouldn't go anywhere else now. I've always lived in Old Town and I was a little apprehensive when I had to sell my own home because I could no longer look after myself.

"I suppose I felt a bit like a girl being sent away to boarding school lots of butterflies in my tummy. But I needn't have worried. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me and my life is now full of joy and contentment.

"It would be a shame if the scare stories stopped people making what could be the right choice for them."

Just the previous evening, Lynn Plumstead had watched Donal MacIntyre on TV exposing unacceptable behaviour by staff at two care homes with residents suffering from learning difficulties.

Neither home was in this area, but Lynn had previously worked in a home for people with learning difficulties and she was "appalled" by what was shown on the MacIntyre: UK Undercover programme on Channel 5.

"It was horrible," she said, shaking her head in disgust. Though it did demonstrate that there was a need for a clean-up in a minority of cases. There are more staff 22 at Fairhaven than residents 18. The residents' ages range from 81 to 104. The youngest member of staff is 21, while the oldest is 65. Three are under 30. All of them have undergone extensive professional inhouse training, in addition to being given police clearance.

There are three working shifts: 7.30am 2.30pm, 2pm-9pm, and 9pm 8am. No member of staff is ever alone when handling residents. Two members of the night team have to be awake at any given time.

With all these inbuilt safety measures and vetting procedures, Lynn is confident that it would be virtually impossible for a rogue carer to slip through the net.

So how does it ever happen?

Lynn has her own theory, derived from personal experience.

"Two people applied for jobs here and after interviewing them I offered them employment, dependent on satisfactory references and police checks," said Lynn.

"Within days I had a call from each of them, saying they weren't prepared to hang around for me as they had got immediate jobs in another care home, presumably in Swindon.

"Police clearance takes around 50 days and is obligatory. There's no way this could have been obtained in such short notice, nor indeed written references. Draw your own conclusion."

Fairhaven is unusual in that it is registered with the Home Office, is managed by a committee of eight people, has charitable status, but is not run as a charity. The cost to residents is £350 per week, rising to £395 in the New Year. Five residents are funded by Social Services, the rest pay their own way.

Fairhaven is so large that even Lynn has lost count of the number of rooms. What she can tell you without resorting to fingers and toes is that there are call-bells in 55 rooms!

Although the weekly entertainment programme is not exactly fashioned on a holiday camp, no one is allowed to vegetate. There are bingo sessions, nail-care, aromatherapy, art and craft classes and a different visiting entertainer each week.

In summer, barbecues are arranged on the lawn. Just before Christmas, they all went out to a restaurant for dinner.

"It took 35 minutes to load the coach and we brought traffic to a standstill in Old Town, but it was worth it!" said Lynn.

However, the last word should go to the star of the show, 104-year-old Rose Saunders, who has outlived her entire family, except for a sister-in-law.

"I can't hear a word anyone says but I love reading," she said. "I just wish I could run around the way I did when dashing down the Underground in London to sleep during night air-raids in the war.

"I count my lucky stars I ended up here in Swindon."

And counting is something she knows more about than most, having been an accountant all her working life, which ended 44 years ago.

Michael Litchfield