Profile: Anchor chief Jane Ashcroft accuses the Government of being "out of touch with what people think"

For Jane Ashcroft, being chief executive of Anchor, is not just about running care homes.

Ms Ashcroft is known for her campaigning and is not afraid to use her profile and position to challenge government policy in a drive to improve things for older people.

Last year, she launched the Grey Pride campaign to petition the Government to appoint a minister for older people.

“Wales has a commissioner and Scotland has a named member of cabinet and Northern Ireland has a minister for older people. The Government is out of touch with what people think,” says Ms Ashcroft.

During a House of Commons debate in June this year triggered by the Grey Pride campaign, MPs voted in favour of a motion urging the Government to consider appointing a minister for older people.

Ms Ashcroft, who is now pushing for the Government to take action, says: “We need to keep the noise going. It is helpful to look at the other countries so we can say to the Government it is really making a difference.”

“Ninety-six MPs backed us and we had huge celebrity endorsement. The campaign isn’t about saying we need more money, it is about saying we need a minister who is going to prioritise older people’s issues. We galvanised a lot of support and unfortunately we haven’t succeeded yet but we are going to continue campaigning.”

She would like to see the post given to a senior minister in Government as an extra portfolio.

“Grey Pride is not just about thinking about today’s older people but the older people of the future too. I understand the Government has a lot on its plate but at the moment we work with so many different departments on older people’s issues. Having a minister for older people would make things more efficient and by joining things up it would save money,” claims Ms Ashcroft.

Anchor is England’s largest not-for-profit housing association, providing housing, care and support to people over 55 years old. It currently has 97 care homes, 720 sheltered housing schemes and also manages leasehold retirement properties.

Ms Ashcroft has been at Anchor for nearly 14 years and also chairs the English Community Care Association (ECCA).

She was appointed chief executive of Anchor in 2010. Before that she was acting chief executive and prior to that headed up Anchor’s care homes as managing director for care services.

She calls it a “very interesting sector to work in” and says “it is growing all the time”.

“Fifteen years ago, people didn’t talk about older people’s services. However things are very challenging at the moment although I am very optimistic about the ability of care homes to evolve.”

The big cloud on the horizon, according to Ms Ashcroft, is funding.

“Because people don’t know what is happening, there are families who will hang on and wait and see what the Government decides, before making a decision on what type of care to opt for. The lack of clarity is damaging and there doesn’t seem to be any commitment to change that.

It is also deterring companies from building new homes and offering new services as they don’t know what the funding is going to be,” she says.

She believes Dilnot’s funding cap idea is the best we have got and feels “the cap would enable people to plan for their future. I would like people to be able to make informed choices but at the moment it is hard for them to do that.”

She would also like to see “choices offered on the insurance market but this would need to be a partnership between the state and the individual”.

“The debate that care homes should be free at the point of delivery is gone. I don’t hear people saying it should be free. I hear them saying it should be fair. What causes distress is the complexity of the care system and the fact that there is no clarity and no consistent approach. Most people recognise that they will have to pay for their care but they want equity.”

The care home sector is changing and “we are seeing a wider range of services starting to appear”.

“In the last few years we had sheltered housing and now we have extra care and we are starting to see more and more retirement villages. There seems to be a real appetite for the retirement village model and I am sure it will continue to evolve and change.”

Ms Ashcroft has played a huge role in the Your Care Rating scheme, which recently launched, giving older people a voice and enabling them to say what they think about the care they receive.

Under the scheme, confidential and standardised questionnaires are to be distributed annually to residents in care homes. The surveys were recently sent out to 50,000 people across 13 care home providers.

“It is about being transparent and giving a voice to the people. We hope it will help drive up standards in the sector.”

In terms of training, Anchor’s chief executive would like to see the care sector becoming more professional.

She says: “We need to recognise that it is highly skilled work. At Anchor we require all our care workers to be qualified up to a level 2 diploma in health and social care. We do a lot of e-learning at the Trust and everyone has to do an understanding dementia course. Caring for older and vulnerable people should be a highly valued role.”

However getting care work valued more highly is hard when many care workers in Britain are on the minimum wage. To address this Anchor has made a commitment that none of its employees should be on the minimum wage.

“The minimum wage has been good for many sectors but it should not be seen as a benchmark,” says Ms Ashcroft.

In terms of pay, Ms Ashcroft herself has come in for a fair amount of criticism, as she is one of the highest earners out of all the housing associations’ chief executives, with a salary of £317,500, according to Inside Housing magazine.

Critics argue her salary should be lower because Anchor is a charity and a non-for-profit housing association.

She has however taken a pay cut this year, her pay dropping by 4 per cent in 2011/12.

Ms Ashcroft when asked about the criticism, says: “I don’t think about it, to be honest. I don’t see my salary as an issue. I feel incredibly lucky to do a job I love. I really enjoy working for Anchor as I can make a huge difference to people’s lives and it is incredibly motivating.”

In terms of the future, it is onwards and upwards.

She says: “We will continue to work on our Grey Pride campaign and we are continuing to build more care homes. We have planning permission to open new care homes in Eastleigh and on the Surrey border. I want to make sure the properties we do have are maintained well and I want to enhance the dementia services we offer.

I also chair ECCA and the sector is working very well together at the moment. I want to raise the profile of good quality, older people’s services so more people are aware of the great work that is going on.”

Interesting facts

First job: Part time job in a café on the cliff top in Barton-on-Sea – I made coffee and tea and cleaned the toilets

Favourite book: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Favourite film: Local Hero

Favourite piece of music: ‘Yesterday’ by the Beatles

What is the best present you have received: Kindle

Last holiday: North of Scotland near Inverness