News & Advice

Public affairs correspondent SHAUN LOWTHORPE looks at how communities rallied together and says that the need to look after our older neighbours should not simply melt away with the snow and ice. Getting about has not been easy for anyone in the last couple of weeks as the heavy snow brought much of the region to a standstill.

For all of us, and older people in particular, it has brought an added dilemma – slippery pavements make you wary of setting out, but if you don’t go out how do you get to the shops to buy food? And if you stay in do you turn the heating on or sit and shiver in the cold worrying about the cost of heating your home?

But with news that thousands of elderly people in Norfolk are failing to claim the benefits such as winter fuel payments that they are entitled to, and the recent deaths of two vulnerable elderly pensioners in a freezing cold house in Northamptonshire, there are fears that the elderly could be bearing the brunt of any bad weather. Some have complained that schools have shut at the drop of a snowflake and the cold snap has also highlighted another more modern fear that bars many of us from taking responsibility for the world beyond our front doors – that if you took a spade and dared to clear the path in front of your house, you could end up being sued. Yet the cold weather has revealed just how far people will go to help and support those in need as many people ranging from neighbours, shop keepers and parish councils have rallied round to offer localised help.

David Harwood, cabinet member for adult social services, at Norfolk County Council, said Norfolk’s volunteer army had played a crucial role in supporting people during the cold weather. “While the bad weather continues, we would also encourage members of the public to look out for their vulnerable elderly relatives and neighbours,” Mr Harwood said. “I’d like to thank the many volunteers who have also helped to support Norfolk’s vulnerable older people during the cold and icy weather, including those who’ve kept the county’s meals on wheels services operating under very difficult circumstances.

Edith Pocock, president of the Norfolk and Norwich Pensioners’ Association, said she hoped the cold snap would revive the wartime spirit of communities pulling together to help each other. “I am very concerned for all those older people out there who haven’t got any family or neighbours, who are not going out because their paths haven’t been gritted,” Mrs Pocock said. Phil Wells, chief executive of Age Concern Norwich, said everyone needed to think about how they could help their elderly neighbours if they thought they might be struggling to cope. “Some older people are worried that asking for help may mean that they will be ‘put away’ in a home, so reassure them that it will not happen,” said Mr Wells.

Meanwhile, those looking after some of the most vulnerable older people also went the extra mile to help. Care workers in the Great Yarmouth area volunteered to do extra shifts to provide lunches to families, and in Norwich, when day centres closed, staff did extra shifts to deliver hotpots to people who would have missed out on a meal. Nick Folkard, director of Carewatch Central Norfolk, based in Mattishall, said one of his staff even walked the rest of her round to get to clients when her car got stuck in the snow last week. “What was amazing to see particularly in the rural areas, where some of the roads were quite treacherous, was that we never had one care worker that said they weren’t going out,” Mr Folkard said. “We did have some, who couldn’t work because their children weren’t at school, but it’s a team effort and when something like this happens everybody pulls together.” But while the official services did their bit, it was the community spirit that was reawakened across the county that could be the lasting lesson of the big freeze, and which needs to continue when the snow has gone.

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