EDITORIAL

AN ageing population, together with a reduction in the number of elderly care beds in public hospitals and a reduced HSE budget, is putting severe strain on private and voluntary nursing homes in this country.

It’s an impending train-crash situation, unless additional nursing-home places are provided to cope with the dramatic projected increase in the county’s elderly population. Consideration will also have to be given to dealing with complex medical conditions affecting residents.

At present, private and voluntary nursing homes provide residential and specialist care for 21,500 people but the ESRI has predicted there will be additional requirement for 888 long-term residential care places per annum up to 2021. There are 11 nursing homes in Clare providing essential care for 618 residents, while there are more than 600 people directly employed in the sector in the county.

Nobody envisaged a property crash when the Fair Deal Scheme was introduced so elderly people could, in effect, put up their home as collateral in return for a residential placement. The Government has a lean on a percentage of the sale price of the property following the death of the owner but the potential value of the return has seriously diminished over the past few years.

Also, previously, if an elderly person was accepted for the scheme, payment was back-dated but this is no longer the case and is a matter of considerable concern to those in the process of joining or considering joining in the future. Furthermore, there has been a pause in access to the scheme to allow patients occupying hospital beds priority access.

Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) has kicked off a nationwide campaign to highlight the urgent action needed to plan ongoing and future long-term residential care requirements. Clare members have been asked to tackle local politicians on the issue.

The Government believes, however, a Department of Health-led forum on Long-Term Residential Care is not needed, as suggested by the NHI.

The Department of Health is on the right road in trying to reduce the number of elderly people being cared for in public hospitals or nursing homes. However, some may need 24-7 care that is impossible for their own family to offer.

Private or voluntary nursing homes are probably the best answer, so there must be serious talk about the financial aspect of things.

 

Clare VEC’s legacy

AS County Clare Vocational Education Committee meets for the last time this Thursday, tribute must be paid to the staff and members who have served the organisation so well over the past 83 years.

Clare VEC is being subsumed on July 1 into Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB). This body will also subsume Limerick City and County Vocational Education Committees as the Government reduces the country’s 33 committees into 16 new entities.

Time was, however, when vocational education in Ireland played second fiddle to other second-level systems of learning.  Vocational schools were known colloquially as ‘The Tech’, a reference to the fact that they were geared towards preparing male students for trades and female students for secretarial work in the Civil Service or such like. Some regarded them as providing a lesser type of education.

This has, of course, no basis in reality as students from VEC schools have gone on to reach the highest possible positions in their chosen careers, both in industry and business fields.

VECs were created by the Vocational Education Act 1930, as successors to the Technical Instruction Committees established by the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act 1899. The act allowed for the establishment of schools offering technical education, as opposed to the more academic secondary schools then available.

The first meeting of the Clare committee was held on November 8, 1930. The first VEC school in the county was opened in Kilrush in September 1936. Besides Irish, English and maths, subjects such as domestic science, woodwork, metalwork, rural science and a commercial course were taught, with evening classes also being provided in some of these subjects.

Things have come a long way since then, with seven schools in Clare, in addition to Gaelcholáiste an Chláir, which was founded in 1993 under the auspices of the VEC. It is a standalone school on the same grounds of Ennis Community College.

The VEC offers a wide range of other second-level programmes, adult education and further education. Engagement in youth work, activities at the Burren Outdoor Pursuit Centre, local partnership groups and Traveller training are now also part of the VEC’s remit.

The body also has a strong working relationship with Clare County Council, Shannon Development and a number of State agencies and private enterprises.

Clare VEC’s mission statement is “to deliver a range of educational programmes and supports to learners attending our schools and centres. Our service changes in response to learner needs and is based on the values of respect, equality, excellence, inclusion, caring and trust”.

The VEC has passed with flying colours in this respect. Vocational education has been revolutionised in Clare under the stewardship of a number of forward-thinking CEOs, with the backing of the committee members.
Clare VEC leaves a proud legacy. The new keepers of the flame for vocational education in County Clare have a lot to live up to.