Older People's Day Services

In 2019 we spoke to a wide range of people to understand what residents using services now, and residents in the future might want to do. Covid-19 impacted on the ability to use the findings from that work to inform future service provisions.

The Council wanted to check if residents’ interests and wishes have changed and therefore launched a consultation in August 2021.

Paper copies of the survey were sent to day centres in Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, in addition an online version of the survey was made available and promoted on Kensington and Chelsea’s website. Care and support workers supported centre users to complete the survey or completed the survey on behalf of some respondents that were unable to complete the survey themselves.

Activities during the pandemic

The most common activities that respondents did ‘regularly’ during the pandemic were:

• Staying at home and watching TV (68 per cent).
• Keeping in contact through telephone conversations (62 per cent).
• Socialising with their ‘bubble’ indoors (43 per cent).

Health and wellbeing

• Almost half (45 per cent) of respondents felt either ‘a little more lonely’ or ‘much more lonely’ since the pandemic.
• Over half (56 per cent) felt their physical health and mobility had either ‘worsened a little ’ or ‘worsened a lot’.
• Over half (52 per cent) felt their wellbeing had either ‘worsened a little' or ‘worsened a lot’ since the pandemic.

• A mix of some 1:1 activity in their own home or in the community and some group activities in a building (54 per cent).
• Drop in for a cuppa and conversation with other people within a space and service designed for this (54 per cent).
• Meet up with other people and undertake indoor based exercise (48 per cent).

Accessing services

The most common issues that respondents felt had a ‘big impact’ on preventing them accessing services were:

• Fear of catching COVID-19 (43 per cent).
• Mobility issues (26 per cent).
• Safety concerns (26 per cent).

Information technology

• A total of (43 per cent) ‘never’ spend any time online at home. Whilst 41 per cent indicated that they go online ‘daily’.
• Almost a quarter (24 per cent) took part in online activities organised by the hubs/centres during the pandemic.
• Nearly a third (31 per cent) would like support to access online activities in the future.

Personalisation

• Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) indicated that they ‘would prefer to attend an established service such as a day centre or community hub’.

The information gained from the exercise is being used to inform commissioning intentions for future service intentions.