THE son and daughter of a 97-year-old forced to move after her care home shut have spoken of the heartache the care crisis in Swindon is having on its victims.

As reported in yesterday's Evening Advertiser, many care homes are at breaking point the result, they are claiming, of underfunding and red tape made worse since the introduction of the Care Standards Act 2000, which came into force in April last year.

Eliazabeth Brackenbury (pictured) was told to leave Hurst House nursing home in May after owners decided to sell up.

While her son Arthur Brackenbury, 69, of Bellver in Toothill praises the standard of care at his mother's new home, Westlecott Residential Home, he says they are offered little support.

He said: "When Hurst House closed down we were only given a month to find a new home for my mother. But we didn't have to do much the staff found the new home. They couldn't have been more helpful."

As reported by the Advertiser yesterday, Richard Harris, chairman of the Swindon Care Homes Association, said he is no longer taking totally Social Services-funded residents at his home, Quarry Mount Residential Home, because the department does not pay enough for the places.

Commenting on this, Mr Brackenbury, whose mother's stay at the residential home which is partly funded by Social Services and supplemented by family, is angry that the council cannot afford to come up with the extra cash needed.

He said: "I am nearly 70 and in a few years I may be looking to go into a nursing home myself. I do not have the money to go privately but even if I did I do not see why I should.

"My mum had five kids to look after. She deserves to be looked after and treated with a bit of respect by the local authorities.

"This country is not poor, it can afford to look after its elderly."

His sister Eileen Huck, 58, agrees. She says the shock of moving has had a massive effect on her mother's health.

She said: "Mum has not been eating well lately. She has not settled in to the new home very well. It is a big thing for elderly people to take in."

As more homes announce they are struggling to keep their heads above the water, Mrs Huck says more families face further trauma.

She said: "Personally, I do not have anything against the care home workers or the management in fact I think they do a brilliant job.

"My main problem is with the Government which is not supporting them. They need to give them more money so they can do their jobs. People are having to move out of their homes into new ones because of this. The bureaucracy does not help either."

National figures out yesterday show the South West has seen the sharpest drop in beds. Figures from Laing Buisson, which provides statistics on the UK health, community care and childcare sectors, show the region ost 2,300 beds between January 1 2002 and April 1 this year. Nationally 11,782 care home beds were lost.

No need to panic, says new Social Service boss

THE new head of Social Services for Swindon is urging elderly people and their loved ones not to worry too much about moves among certain care home owners not to take residents referred to them by Social Services.

As reported in the Evening Advertiser yesterday, private care home owners are considering the move because the council only pays them from £300 to £370 per resident a week, rather than the average £450 which private residents pay.

But Social Services director Keith Skerman says a number of strategies are in place to ensure places for as many as need them.

And he points out that Social Services departments, like all arms of local government, must operate under a limited budget.

The strategies he named include:

Trying wherever possible to ensure that people are cared for in their own homes, which is more economical as well as very often being more of a comfort to the elderly person concerned.

Trying to find private sector partners to build homes and then offering them "block bookings" of places, guaranteeing to pay for a certain number of rooms.

Entering into "block booking" deals with companies running homes already operating in Swindon.

Mr Skerman said: "If people's needs are so great that they cannot realistically be supported in their own homes, we have a duty to make sure they are looked after somewhere else, such as a care home.